Will you make an end-of-the-year tax deductible contribution to celebrate our efforts and help us prepare for the fight ahead?

In my three decades as a consumer activist in California, I have never seen a year like this.

• Our decades-long patient safety campaign finally leveraged the medical insurance complex to agree to raise California’s cap on medical malpractice damages by as much as 12 times. This will give injured patients access to attorneys and justice again.
• Our campaign to hold oil companies accountable for overcharging drivers finally hit pay dirt. We passed Senate Bill 1322 (Allen), which requires oil refiners to post monthly their profits made from California gasoline. Convinced by our research about price gouging, Governor Newsom answered our call for a special session of the legislature, which convened two weeks ago, to enact a price gouging penalty and windfall profits cap on oil refiners.
• Since 2019, Consumer Watchdog has been railing against the broken recycling and bottle deposit system in California. This year the legislature and Governor finally enacted an overhaul that could right the ship.
• Thanks to our watchdogging in 2022 landmark privacy rights enacted under Prop 24, to allow consumers to say no to the sharing of their personal information and stop the use of sensitive personal information such as precise geolocation, will go into effect in 2023. This is the strongest privacy rights law in America.
• Landmark insurance reform Prop 103 survived more challenges to its strict regulatory regime and our interventions alone against proposed rate hikes stopped $70 million in unnecessary premium increases in recent years.
• Our litigation team scored key victories against Zoom over its deception about its security protocols during the pandemic, in defense of the rights of HIV patients to be seen by doctors, and a critical victory in the US Supreme Court to protect the rights of the disabled to have equal access to federal health care benefits.
• We won passage of legislation amending the Political Reform Act to require consultants paid to influence an insurance company merger to register as lobbyists. The loophole was exposed when consultants sought a $2 million success fee from the insurer at the heart of Commissioner Lara’s pay-to-play scandal.  

This has truly been a year to remember. If you appreciate and support our efforts, please make as generous a contribution as you can manage.https://www.youtube.com/embed/ldtbln1YM7s
Thanks for all you do, and happy new year!

Jamie