This is what I am talking about!!  Dr. Bill Grant and his physician partners have successfully navigated the mine field prepared for them by the Virginia health cartel and their paid central planning agents in the state government.  The certificate of need laws in Virginia are the healthcare equivalent of aviation’s Wright amendment, the ridiculous law which prevented Southwest Airlines from more effectively competing with the big name airlines.  

What do you think will happen to the price of a plane ticket to NYC or Los Angeles now that Southwest can fly directly there from their home base in Dallas?  What do you think will happen to the price (and quality) of surgical services delivered to patients in Virginia with the launch of Dr. Grant’s facility?  Why would anyone think that competition in healthcare wouldn’t bring the same cost and quality advantages as competition in every other industry?

Congratulations to Dr. Grant and his associates.  The patients who would otherwise be subjected to bankruptcy will be the beneficiaries of your facility’s launch.  The deflationary impact your pricing will have on other facilities in your area will benefit many others, patients and families who will not have likely even heard of you.  Patients will also and most importantly benefit from the quality you will provide and from the pressure on your big hospital adversaries to step up and match your quality as best they can, no longer able to take complete advantage of their syndicated strangle-hold on Virginians’ health care.

G. Keith Smith, M.D.