Health care needs aren't easily measured

The goal might have been admirable in the mid 1970s: restrain health care costs and allow coordinated planning of new services and construction in the health care industry. The reality of the federal government's mandate for certificate-of-need programs, however, was such a patchwork of programs that the law was repealed 13 years later. Many states—Wisconsin included—no longer require a formal review and approval of large capital expenditure programs in their health care industries. (JANESVILLE GAZETTE, 12/12)