A healthcare coalition of consumer advocates, insurers, pharmaceutical companies, employers and physician groups has launched the Clear Choices Campaign, which will advocate for more transparent, accountable and consumer-friendly health markets.
Several key players in the healthcare industry have joined the coalition, including AARP, Novo Nordisk, the National Consumers League, the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association, the National Council for Behavioral Health and Aetna.
"Our members come from all sides of the political debate," Joel White, president of Clear Choices, said in a statement. "But we all agree that consumers should have access to affordable healthcare — and that transparency will enhance choice and competition to make healthcare more affordable."
The coalition said the campaign focuses on policies that "provide better tools for consumers to make informed health decisions, better data to power those tools and better markets to use the tools in." The campaign's goals include the following: greater transparency of federal and state-based health insurance exchanges, better up-front information on the price, cost, quality and safety of healthcare providers and the services they offer, better quality measures in federal and state healthcare programs and more and better data "to power technology tools that empower comparison shopping and informed consumers."
In the end, the coalition said, improved healthcare transparency will empower consumers and lower health costs.
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