NASHVILLE, TN – This week, the Center for Individual Freedom (CFIF) launched a digital and radio advertising campaign calling for the repeal of Tennessee’s “Certificate of Need” (CON) laws. The ads, which are running in the Nashville and Knoxville media markets, highlight how CON laws give unelected government bureaucrats too much power over Tennesseans’ health care choices.

"Many Tennesseans understandably remain unfamiliar with the state’s CON laws, but the bureaucracy and red tape they impose on the free-market impact everyone," said CFIF President Jeffrey Mazzella. "Health care providers seeking to build new health care infrastructure or add new services and invest in local communities must navigate burdensome and unnecessary bureaucratic red tape, slowing down an already lengthy and costly process." 

“Many communities throughout the Volunteer State, especially rural communities, need access to care now,” added Timothy Lee, CFIF's Senior Vice President of Legal and Public Affairs. "Their health care choices shouldn’t be dictated by unelected government bureaucrats and entrenched interests."

Government bureaucrats failed Tennesseans during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their actions resulted in counterproductive policies like mask mandates, classroom closures and small business lockdowns. It’s time to restrict unelected bureaucrats’ power over health care in order to protect patient choice and access to quality care. CFIF urges all Tennesseans to contact their state representatives to make their voices heard to repeal the state’s archaic CON laws. 

Watch the ad below:

Founded in 1998, the Center for Individual Freedom is a non-profit, constitutional and free-market advocacy organization with more than 300,000 activists and supporters across the nation, including thousands in Tennessee.

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