Consumers First Letter to Congress Urging Action on COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a public health and economic crisis in the United States. Three months after the U.S. made its first COVID-19 diagnosis, more than a million people have contracted the virus, and as of April 28th more than 58,000 people have lost their lives. The undersigned members of Consumers First, a national coalition representing health care consumers and children, primary care physicians, employers, and workers, are writing to express our support for continued efforts to strengthen our nation’s response to the COVID-19 emergency that has brought unprecedented challenges to our health care system and has resulted in 22 million individuals filing unemployment claims. Building on the strong bipartisan efforts that led to the passage of the CARES Act, Consumers First urges Congress to pass additional legislation to enable the health care system to meet the needs of the American people during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Consumers First urges Congress to ensure the following policies are included in the next legislative package that is developed to address the COVID crisis:

• Prohibiting excessive pricing on any health care items or services including provider and consumer medical supplies,
• Ending surprise medical bills
• Allowing telemedicine services to be subject to payment parity across payers
• Increase payments to primary care providers