Consumer Watchdog executive director Carmen Balber has been with the organization for overtwo 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. Her recent advocacy focuses on the impacts of climate change and insurance industry accountability for rising prices and reduced access to insurance for homeowners and renters.
She also leads Consumer Watchdog’s advocacy to improve patient safety in California, including campaigns to win new access to justice for victims of medical negligence by updating the state’s cap on medical malpractice damages; winning a voice for injured consumers at the Medical Board of California; 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. She has appeared as a commentator on these topics on broadcasts and in publications across the country.
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 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. She is a citizen of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa (Anishinaabe).
California Medical Board Votes Unanimously To Support A Bill Requiring Doctors Check A Patient’s Prescription History Before Prescribing Powerful, Addictive Medications
Los Angeles, CA – Consumer Watchdog today applauded a California Medical Board unanimous vote to support a bill requiring doctors to check a state prescription database before prescribing the most addictive medications – like OxyContin and other opioids – to help prevent prescription drug addiction and thousands of overdose deaths.
Big court victory will upend secrecy in CA Legislature, open records to public
A landmark court decision was announced last night that will upend secrecy in the state Legislature. In response to a lawsuit by Bay Area and Los Angeles News Groups, which had sought records from the Legislature surrounding indicted Senators Leland Yee and Ron Calderon, a judge has ruled that the legislature must turn over calendars, meeting schedules, expense and reimbursement records as public records.
Failing Grades at California Hospitals Expose Lack of Patient Safety Safeguards
Santa Monica, CA -- Consumer Watchdog said today that the abysmal patient safety record of California hospitals exposed in a national report card highlights the lack of legal deterrence and safeguards to protect consumers.
Checking A Patient’s Medical Record Is Just Good Medicine
Check a patient’s medical record. It’s a simple fix to a tragic prescription drug epidemic.
When you have an annual checkup, your doctor checks your vital signs and draws blood for testing. But before she even does that, what does she do? She checks your medical record.
Consumer Watchdog Praises Committee Passage of Bill that Requires Physicians Check Prescription Drug Database Before Prescribing Powerful, Addictive Medications
Santa Monica, CA -- Consumer Watchdog today applauded a California Legislature committee for passing a bill that requires prescribers to check a state database before prescribing the most addictive medications – like OxyContin and other opioids – to help prevent prescription drug addiction and thousands of overdose deaths.
Anthem Overcharging Consumers Another $33 Million For Health Insurance; Has Imposed Unjustified Price Spikes Of $145 Million Since 2013
Santa Monica, CA – Anthem Blue Cross has, once again, failed to justify a rate increase on consumers, overcharging policyholders $33 million that California’s Insurance Commissioner should have the power to reject, said Consumer Watchdog today.
Anthem Hack Exposes Privacy Failings At Health Information Exchange Created By Health Insurers
Santa Monica, CA – The day after Anthem Blue Cross revealed that millions of customers’ information had been hacked, Consumer Watchdog and Patient Privacy Rights called on Cal INDEX, the health information database created by Anthem and Blue Shield of California, to allow consumers to opt-in rather than force them to opt-out.