While access to and affordability of health care is a major political and policy concern, state governments still have rules that work against both affordability and access. In Georgia, one such rule is getting a little bit weaker.

Certificate of Need (CON) laws harm consumers (that is, patients) by constricting the supply of medical facilities. Essentially, a government agency decides whether a given geographic area "needs" a new clinic, hospital, or other health care facility. (Why no CON laws for grocery stores? Certainly food is as essential to life, if not more so, than many medical treatments.)

In Georgia, the Department of Community Health is proposing a rule that would break open the CON game, just a bit.

The Augusta Chronicle (registration required) explains:

The proposal, which gained preliminary approval Thursday from the department's board, deals with the state's controversial "certificate of need" rules. Under those rules, major medical facilities and some outpatient surgery centers have to gain approval from the state by proving that the service they want to provide is needed in the area.

General surgeons, who focus on abdominal surgeries, would no longer have to get a certificate of need before opening their own surgical centers.

Instead, general surgery would be classified as a "single specialty," a designation many medical associations have already given the practice.

Single-specialty surgery centers that are in a doctor's office are exempt from the certificate of need laws.

Good. A better move would be abolishing CON requirements altogether, but this is a start.