I will be speaking at a Health Care Tea Party-like rally in the Capitol Rotunda on Wed. at 10 a.m.

My focus will be specifically on how Kentucky's stringent Certificate of Need law can pose as barriers for innovative health-care providers, including physicians who want to provide surgery in ambulatory surgical centers, which often is less expensive for patients than the expensive surgeries provided in hospitals.

While lawmakers should be removing roadblocks to competition and health-care entrepreneurship, they instead are considering passing House Bill 458, which requires physicians who want to provide surgery in ambulatory surgical centers to obtain a Certificate of Need -- even though the Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled that the surgeons should not be required to obtain a CON.

Hospital administrators will try and make the case that CON laws help ensure care for the indigent. However, there is a lot of evidence that the policy insulates "incumbent" health care facilities from true competition.

Andy Hightower of the Kentucky Club for Growth also will be speaking.