Consumer Group Calls for New Competitive Health Care Marketplace

Media Contacts
Diane E. Brown

Arizona PIRG Education Fund

Arizona policy-makers can address rising health care costs by implementing an effective health insurance exchange, according to a report released today by the Arizona PIRG Education Fund. 

“Arizona leaders have the flexibility to craft a health insurance exchange that enhances choice and competition,” said Diane E. Brown, Executive Director of the Arizona PIRG Education Fund.  “Consumers need a health insurance exchange to lower costs and improve the quality of their coverage.”

The report, Building a Better Health Care Marketplace, details the steps policy-makers must take to ensure that the exchange lives up to its promise.   

“To succeed, the health insurance marketplace must be run by and for Arizona businesses and consumers, not by and for the insurance lobby,” said Brown.  “The health insurance exchange needs to have the power to negotiate for lower premiums and push for reforms that improve the quality of care.  It needs to be consumer-friendly.  And it needs to be big and stable.  As Arizona policymakers create our exchange, they should focus on delivering results for consumers.”

“Insurers and other special interests will try to undermine the exchange by preventing it from negotiating and keeping consumers in the dark about the value of their coverage,” Brown concluded, “but our leaders have to stand up for consumers.  Making the health care marketplace more competitive is the best opportunity we have to give consumers more power and lower costs.”