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).
Consumer Watchdog Campaign: U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services Officials Call For Random Drug Testing Of Doctors
Santa Monica, CA – Officials with the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services called for random drug testing of doctors in an opinion piece in the New York Times Thursday. The first law in the nation requiring random drug testing of physicians will be considered by California voters as part of a patient safety initiative headed for the November ballot.
Consumer Watchdog Campaign: Fla. Supreme Court Rules Medical Malpractice Damage Cap Unconstitutional
Santa Monica, CA – Californians should have the same right as Floridians to equal protection under the law in cases of medical negligence, said Consumer Watchdog Campaign today after the Florida Supreme Court ruled the state’s cap on medical negligence damages is unconstitutional. Signatures will be turned in beginning next week for a ballot measure that would increase protections for harmed California patients by
Consumer Watchdog Campaign: Anthem Increases Rates 25% As It Spends $12.9 Million With Parent Company WellPoint To Defeat California Ballot Initiative To Regulate Rate...
Santa Monica, CA – Anthem Blue Cross and its parent company WellPoint have given $12.9 million to defeat a California ballot initiative that would require health insurance companies to get approval for rate hikes, like the increase of up to 25% Anthem proposes for over 306,000 Californians on April 1.
Billboard Announces Toll-Free Hotline, 1-844-DOCS-DUI, For Public And Physicians to Report Drug and Alcohol-Impaired Doctors
Oakland, CA – Consumer Watchdog launched a billboard publicizing a new toll-free hotline, 1-844-DOCS-DUI, calling on the public and physicians to report suspected drug and alcohol abuse by doctors. A woman harmed by her physician, who found out only later that the doctor had an alcohol abuse problem, called for transparency and reform.
Blue Shield Imposes Another Unreasonable Rate Hike, This Time On More Than 80,000 Californians
Santa Monica, CA – Blue Shield Life and Health is imposing an unreasonable rate increase on over 80,000 Californians with individual health insurance policies, an average of 9.8% that adds up to a 22.8% increase for the year. California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones announced today that the company would not budge on its excessive rate hike.
Consumer Watchdog Campaign: Nation’s Largest Medical Society Says Doctors Should Check Drug Database Before Prescribing Addictive Drugs
Santa Monica, CA -- In a position paper published today to address the “serious public health problem” of prescription drug abuse, the nation’s largest physician medical society argues that doctors should be required to check state prescription drug databases before prescribing controlled substances to patients.
Obama Reprieve on Health Insurance Cancellations Welcome News for Consumers, But Premiums Still Likely to Go Up, Says Consumer Watchdog
Santa Monica, CA – Consumer Watchdog today applauded President Obama’s move to delay cancellations of health insurance plans for millions of Americans, one week after the nonprofit group called for a moratorium, but expressed concern that consumers will still face steep rate hikes in January.
Consumer Watchdog Campaign: Father Circulates Patient Safety Ballot Measure To Prevent Other Families From Suffering The Same Tragedy His Did
Santa Monica, CA – Petitions for a 2014 patient safety ballot initiative to curb prescription drug abuse and strengthen physician accountability hit the streets in every major California city this week. Bob Pack launched the petition drive after losing his two children, Troy and Alana, ages 10 and 7, and unborn twins, in an accident caused by a driver high on drugs and alcohol.