Carmen Balber

Consumer Watchdog executive director Carmen Balber has been with the organization for nearly two decades. She spent four years directing the group’s Washington, D.C. office where she advocated for key health insurance market reforms that were ultimately enacted into law as part of the Affordable Care Act.

Balber is recognized as a leading expert on a wide range of personal insurance issues and has authored or co-authored numerous reports on the auto, health and medical malpractice insurance industries, and insurance rate regulation. She leads Consumer Watchdog’s advocacy to improve patient safety in California, including passage of first-in-the-nation legislation requiring doctors to disclose when they are on probation for sexual misconduct to patients, and legislation requiring doctors to check a patient’s prescription history before prescribing opioids and other drugs. In 2012, she managed the coalition effort to defeat Prop 33, a $17 million insurance industry initiative that would have raised rates on good drivers. Her commentaries have appeared in publications across the country, from the Boston Globe, to the Houston Chronicle, to the Los Angeles Times.

As an organizer with Consumer Watchdog, Balber ran campaigns to pass volunteer-qualified ballot measures enacting the nation’s strongest municipal conflict of interest protections in five cities across California. She also coordinated citizen organizing efforts in Consumer Watchdog’s successful volunteer lobbying effort to block a legislative utility bailout in Sacramento in 2001.

Before joining Consumer Watchdog, Balber learned the ropes at the Colorado and Washington PIRGs. She holds a B.A. in Politics from Pomona College in Claremont, California and is a graduate of the Armand Hammer United World College of the American West (now UWC-USA) in Montezuma, New Mexico, one of 17 secondary schools across the globe dedicated to making education a force for peace, sustainability and change by bringing together youth from a diversity of countries and cultures to live and learn.

Carmen Balber

KGTV-SD (ABC) – San Diego, CA: Doctor Accused of Putting Hidden Camera In A Hospital Restroom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZmTx3mhJlY Consumer Watchdog's Carmen Balber says it shouldn't have taken the medical board almost 3 years to post its case against the doctor. 

Consumer Watchdog Warns Governor, Legislative Leaders that Insurance Commissioner Lara’s Deregulation Deal with Insurers Has No Consumer Benefits 

Industry and Insurance Commissioner Respond with Attack on Consumer Watchdog  Los Angeles, CA – Consumer Watchdog wrote Governor Gavin Newsom, Senate pro tem Toni Atkins and...

Records Show Insurance Commissioner’s Deal with Industry to Expand Wildfire Coverage is a Sham 

Los Angeles, CA – Documents obtained under the Public Records Act and Prop 103 reveal details of the secret proposal to bail out the insurance...

Patients Win Voice In Medical Board Doctor Discipline

Sacramento, CA – California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed legislation containing reforms long sought by patient advocates that will increase families’ voice in medical board...

Climate Risk Modelers’ Financial Conflicts Should Disqualify Their Use for Insurance Rates in California

Los Angeles, CA – The top two publicly-traded companies selling black box catastrophe models to insurance companies have financial conflicts of interest that should bar...

Lara’s Deal with Insurance Industry Does Nothing for Consumers and Does Not Address Climate Change

California Insurance Commissioner Lara’s behind-closed-doors deal will allow the insurance industry to raise home insurance premiums for 8.7 million Californians.

Medical Board Reform Bill That Will Expand Patients’ Voice in Doctor Disciplinary Process Heads to Governor Newsom

Sacramento, CA – Patients will have a greater voice in investigations into harm caused by a doctor under legislation California lawmakers sent to the governor...

Insurance Industry Fails to Win Backroom Bailout in CA Legislature

Consumer Watchdog Calls for Open Debate and Disclosure of Secret Proposals As Insurer Focus Shifts to Insurance Commissioner Lara Sacramento, CA -- The insurance industry’s attempt...

Newsletter

To be updated with all the latest news, press releases and special reports.

Don't miss

Support Consumer Watchdog