I attended an interesting presentation earlier this summer by a group of local Doctors interested in starting a Proton Therapy Center for cancer treatment. The logic proceeded that Protons used for radiation treatment can be more concentrated and stable than the current common treatment of X-Ray Radiation. The precise targeting of the dosage is more directed at the cancerous cells has less side effects on healthy cells, and can be given in higher volumes without additional harm to the patient.

Sounds plausible enough to me, but the treatment centers have been quite expensive, $100 Million in some cases, and require a very long term outlook to achieve profitability. So it is really good news from Madsion that researchers at the University of Wisconsin have made some developments getting the price down to $20 Million. Lower delivery costs, more effective treatment, healthier patients, less pain and suffering…who could argue with that?

Enter one of the great villains in healthcare today: The Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board.

The Doctors explained the bewildering process of competitive needs evaluation by the planning board before any health facility of this type can be built. The IHFP Board, which once boasted such stellar members such as Stuart Levine, working on orders from Tony Rezko, is in charge of determining whether cancer treatment centers are available to the public.

Even if the IHFP Board was not one of the most corrupt entities in the most corrupt state in America, the Socialist process of a planning board knowing how to locate facilities better than a business owner is a farce. The major question mark at the presentation I attended was not about patient health, or financing of the facilities. The risk was that the IHFP Board would not approve a facility in both Joliet and Naperville (for example) because of the “harmful effects of competition”.

Such is the case with Northern Illinois University’s stifling of Procure Treatment Center’s new facility planned for Central Dupage Hospital. NIU is using the IHFP Board to stop construction of a Proton Treatment Center, using the nebulous excuse that Procure Treatment Center did not satisfy the “certificate of need”, which is essentially license to compete in the healthcare industry in Illinois.

Procure has initiated a lawsuit against NIU and the IHFP Board alleging anti-trust violations, and a possible reversal of the IHFP at its scheduled August board meeting. So we are left with a jittery market where central planning boards are denying treatment to people willing to pay for it. This complication of the investment procedure keeps a competitive market from working to serve the people of Illinois, and keeps the Stuart Levines and Tony Rezkos of the world employed separating cancer patients from their treatment.