Table of Contents

Endorsement for INSURE Act, to address crisis in home insurance market
Advocates expressed support for the Incorporating National Support for Unprecedented Risks and Emergencies (INSURE) Act, which would create a federal catastrophic reinsurance program to insulate consumers from unrestrained homeowners insurance cost increases.

Key policies recommended to expand access and lower insulin prices
Consumer Action and dozens of other advocacy organizations joined in a letter urging Majority Leader Schumer to include key policies to expand access and lower insulin prices in the anticipated drug pricing package.

Groups say yes to legislation that would prohibit auto insurers from discriminating based on socioeconomic factors
Advocates, including Consumer Action, wrote a letter to members of the House Financial Services Committee expressing support for the Prohibit Auto Insurance Discrimination (PAID) Act (HR 3880), which would prevent auto insurance companies from using socioeconomic factors in their decision-making about customer insurability and rates.

Groups urge U.S. senators to advance legislation that would result in lower drug prices
More than 40 advocacy organizations sent a letter to the 118th Senate urging the lawmakers to advance legislation would result in lower drug prices for millions.

Groups urge Federal Insurance Office to strengthen its proposed climate data collection
Consumer Action and 75 other consumer groups wrote to the Department of the Treasury to ask that the Federal Insurance Office strengthen its proposed climate data collection in an effort to ascertain how climate change is impacting access to affordable insurance for underserved communities.

Protect retirees and savers from conflicted investment advice
A broad coalition of leading worker, consumer and investor advocates has urged the Department of Labor (DOL) to quickly update and strengthen the rules governing retirement investment advice to help protect workers and retirees from harmful conflicts of interest. Conflicted retirement investment advice costs retirement savers tens of billions of dollars every year.

It’s time to stand up for patients and to stop Big Pharma from ripping us off
As the Senate considered the terms of a reconfigured reconciliation package, 91 organizations representing patients, consumers, seniors, unions, small businesses, large employers, and physicians and disease advocacy groups sent a letter to all 50 Senate Democrats urging them to take immediate action to advance a reconciliation package that includes the reforms to lower prescription drug prices in the Build Back Better Act (BBB). These drug pricing reforms are not controversial for the people of America; they are the most popular element of BBB. Over 80% of Americans support them—Democrats, Republicans and Independents alike.

As the pandemic continues, the Build Back Better Act aims to provide critical assistance to American families
Consumer Action joined over 200 national, state and community organizations in thanking the House of Representatives for the momentous gains made in the Build Back Better Act, reinforcing the need to keep the package intact as it makes its way through the Senate, and urging swift passage onto signature by President Biden. By passing the historic Build Back Better bill, Congress is tackling some of the most important problems families face, by accomplishing things such as cutting taxes for working and middle class families, supporting child and elder care, making college more affordable, providing job training, and making the largest investment in battling climate change in our nation’s history.

Advocates ask the CFPB to bring back public consumer complaint narratives
Dozens of consumer, civil rights, community, housing and privacy groups urged the new director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Rohit Chopra, to stop burying the complaint details (called narratives) in the agency’s consumer complaint database. Under its Trump-appointed director, Kathy Kraninger, the CFPB made it more difficult for consumers to access the most useful portion of the complaints. Burying the complaint narratives was one of many big gifts Kraninger gave to financial firms that long fought public display of the consumer-provided descriptions that reveal the unfair practices companies would rather keep hidden.

Americans need drug pricing reform now
Consumer Action joined more than 60 national, state and local groups in urging Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to resist demands from some caucus members seeking to weaken the Medicare drug price negotiation policies in the Build Back Better Act. The bill aims to lower drug prices for millions of Americans by allowing Medicare to negotiate certain drug prices, penalizing drug companies that increase their prices faster than inflation, and adding an out-of-pocket cap to Medicare Part D. Advocates warn that weakening this popular policy would allow Big Pharma to continue to gouge Americans and profit from exorbitantly high drug prices.