Consumers Key to Health Care Reform Efforts

Consumers Key to Health Care Reform Efforts: " There is a growing consensus that activating and engaging consumers is an essential component to health care reform in the United States. The health care choices of individual consumers and daily management of their own health can profoundly affect health care utilization, costs and outcomes. While there are sharp differences between advocates of a strong government role in health care reform and those who believe reform should be achieved primarily through the private sector, most health care reformers at least acknowledge that improvements in quality, cost containment and reductions in low-value care will not occur without more informed and engaged consumers and patients. Payment reform and structural changes to care delivery only address one side of the equation. The other side is consumers and patients becoming more informed decision-makers and managers of their health."