Consumers First

Consumers First is a new alliance that brings together powerful interests from consumers, children, employers, labor unions, and primary care providers working to change the fundamental economic incentives and design of the health care system. Our work is to realign the incentives and design of health care so that the system truly delivers the health and high-quality care that all families across our nation deserve.

Consumers First has issued A Call to Action to consumer health care organizations, employers, labor unions, health care professionals, and allies across the nation to join in efforts to uproot the fundamental economic distortions in the nation’s health care payment and delivery system to ensure that the best health and health care are affordable and accessible for every person across the country.

Consumers First Coalition Principles

Let’s Make Our Nation’s Health Care System Work for Everyone

Our nation’s health care system is the most expensive of any country, and at the same time it continues to lag behind peer countries in quality of care, access, patient outcomes, population health status, and administrative efficiency. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated long-standing inequities and system failures that threaten the health and economic security of our nation’s families. It is time to stand up for high-value health care that ensures the best health possible for America’s families without threatening their economic independence and vitality.

Consumers First brings together diverse organizations representing families and children, working people, employers, and primary care clinicians to redesign the economic incentives of health care payment and delivery that drive unaffordable, low-quality health care. The coalition works to create a unified voice to counterbalance entrenched industry-focused interests in health care by ensuring the needs of consumers are centered in the policies and programs that govern our health care system.

By joining Consumers First, you agree with the following principles:

• The best health and health care should be accessible and affordable for every person across the country. To achieve this, it’s imperative to uproot the fundamental economic incentives in the U.S. health care payment and delivery system that favor entrenched interests in the health care sector at the expense of families and children, working people, and employers.
• The economic incentives that underlie our health care system must be overhauled to deliver affordable, equitable, high-quality health care in competitive health care markets. The system should not reward health industry players who undermine market dynamics, engage in discriminatory or anti-competitive practices, or provide low-value health care.
• We stand in solidarity with the millions of women and men who work in health care delivery, who work hard to provide high-quality care despite the many shortcomings associated with the way our country organizes, staffs, pays for, and measures care. Our focus is on addressing the broader system failures that drive high cost, low-quality care, and health disparities so that both clinicians and consumers can thrive.

The steering committee of Consumers First is made up of leading consumer advocacy, employer, labor, and primary care organizations committed to redesigning the economic incentives of the U.S .health care system to ensure affordable, high-quality care for America’s families. The steering committee establishes the national policy agenda for Consumers First to align with the movement’s broader principles. Joining Consumers First does not equal an endorsement of these policy recommendations. Rather, stakeholders across the movement are invited to sign-on and help advance these policy goals on an ongoing basis.

Consumers First has released its administrative and legislative policy agenda that crosscuts each of the six focus areas outlined in the Call to Action.The policy agenda is focused on achieving policy change in the short and intermediate terms. Consumers First will periodically update its policy priorities to reflect the changing policy landscape and to leverage new opportunities in alignment with the long-term vision defined in each of the its six focus areas:

• Distortions in Prescription Drug Prices
• Distortions Created by Payment Systems, Including Medicare
• Increased Health Care Industry Consolidation
• Inadequate Access to Data and Lack of Transparency
• Flawed Health Care Workforce Policy
• Federal Tax Policy for Nonprofit Health Care Institutions and Insurance Plans

Together, we will work to ensure that the nation’s health care system finally fulfills its obligation to the people it serves by providing affordable, high-quality, cost-effective care to everyone.

• Read the Insights Column: White House Executive Order on Hospital Consolidation Answers Consumer Calls to Lower Health Care Costs for Nation’s Families (7/27/21)
• Read the Letter: Consumers First Comment Letter to the Federal Government on the Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System Proposed Rule (7/10/21)
• Read the Letter: Consumers First Letter of Support to Senate Judiciary Committee on Hospital Consolidation Hearing (6/1/21)
• Read the Consumer’s First 2021 Administrative Agenda (4/13/21)
• Read the news release on Consumers First’s 2021 Administrative Agenda (4/13/21)
• Read the Letter: Consumers First’s Letter To Biden Transition Team On Key Administrative Priorities
• Read the Statement: Consumers First Commends Congress for Including Critical Provision from the Lower Health Care Cost Act in the COVID-19 Relief Package (12/21/20)
• Read the Statement: Consumers First Urges Congress To Include Critical Provisions From The Lower Health Care Cost Act In The Current COVID-19 Relief Package (12/16/20)
• Watch the video on Consumers First’s 2021 Legislative Agenda (12/9/20)
• Read the News Release on Consumers First’s 2021 Legislative Agenda (12/9/20)
• Read Consumers First’s 2021 Legislative Agenda (12/8/20)
• Read Consumers First’s statement on site-neutral payments (8/27/20)
• Listen to Consumers First’s inaugural telebriefing here (5/14/2019).
• Read the News Release on Consumers First’s Launch (5/14/2019).
• Read the News Release on the Consumer’s First Policy Agenda. (7/31/19).

The steering committee of Consumers First is made up of leading consumer advocacy, employer, labor, and provider organizations:

• American Academy of Family Physicians
• American Benefits Council
• American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees
• American Federation of Teachers
• Families USA
• First Focus
• Pacific Business Group on Health