March 1st, 2025 by WCBC Radio

The legislature is now a little over a quarter of the way through the 2025 60-day session, and bills are beginning to reach the House floor. One of the first to do so may seem minor to some, but it carries significant importance. House Bill 2053 updates state code to include the United States Space Force in the definition of the armed forces.

The U.S. Space Force (USSF) was officially established on December 20, 2019, when President Donald Trump signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2020 into law. Recognizing the Space Force in state code ensures that its current and former members are eligible for benefits such as tuition assistance, hiring preferences, and property tax exemptions for military personnel and veterans. Without this explicit recognition, Space Force members could be unintentionally excluded from these important benefits.

Typically, in my weekly article I talk about what passed, but I want to talk about a bill that failed in the House Health Committee that would have improved West Virginia’s Health Care system. There was a bill designed to repeal West Virginia’s Certificate of Need (CON)laws.  The bill failed on a 12 to 13 vote Monday night. I don’t serve on the Heath Committee, so I never got the opportunity to vote on it, but I researched and followed the bill closely. 
Let me explain a little about what CON is.  CON laws were introduced at the federal level in 1974 under the Nixon administration requiring states to implement a state level CON law, with the goal of controlling healthcare costs by preventing unnecessary facility expansion. However, overwhelming evidence has since shown that CON has failed to achieve its intended purpose. Instead of lowering costs and improving access, it has restricted competition, driven up prices, and limited healthcare choices for patients. Recognizing its ineffectiveness, the federal government repealed the CON mandate in 1987, yet we did not, and West Virginia continues to enforce some of the most restrictive CON laws in the country.

While most of the public seemed unaware of the repeal of CON being proposed, I did receive a fair amount of form emails that were identical to each other.  I responded to each one to engage those sending them asking specific questions about CON.  Most went unanswered, the few that did answer didn’t really understand how CON worked or at least had a misconception.

CON restricts competition, but that restricts consumer choice in healthcare.  If the was something like Burger CON, then McDonald’s and Burger King could use the state to keep Wendy’s from opening a store near them.  Now some people believe that it is different from healthcare, but is it?  CON is being used prevent the construction of a new hospital in the Buckhannon area, but isn’t a brand-new hospital a good thing for the people of that area?
We are fortunate to have one of the top ranked hospitals in the nation, Potomac Valley Hospital. And it is because they have excellent leadership and staff.  But CON doesn’t protect them from competition.  Living close to the border if someone wanted to open a surgery center, CON would block them from putting it in Keyser, but Maryland, which has a less restrictive CON law would likely approve it quickly for McCoole and the result would be PVH would have the same competition, but West Virginia would have lost the jobs and the tax base. 

Most of the no vote to repeal CON was driven by fear of the unknown, but I am confident that when it is repealed in the future our Potomac Valley Hospital, one of the best in the nation, will be able to expand more rapidly providing better healthcare for our community. 
Another bill of note that passed this week was HB 2047 which will prohibit cameras and recording devices in bedrooms and bathrooms of foster children, there are a few exceptions.  Infants and very small children where a baby monitor makes sense and for some with medical conditions that need constant monitoring.  This is to ensure the foster child has privacy.  
In the meantime, if you have any questions, need help with a state agency, or just have an idea that you think would make the state better, please let me know. My contact is Gary.Howell@WVHouse.gov, and my phone is (304) 340-3191