Insurance
The Health Premiums Puzzle
(Click here to listen to the audio broadcast of this program.) In March, President Obama signed health care reform into law. But skyrocketing…
Apr 23, 2010Consumer Watchdog
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Articles by Consumer Watchdog
Insurance
Finance: Consumer, State Groups Oppose Senate Insurance Provisions
Consumer groups and state insurance commissioners are fighting broad powers granted to the Treasury Department in the Senate's financial regulatory bill to…
Apr 21, 2010
Privacy
Consumer Group to Call for Google Break up
Consumer Watchdog, the Santa Monica group that’s proving a perpetual thorn in the side of Google Inc., plans to call on the…
Apr 21, 2010
Privacy
Watchdog Wants Google’s Head as Google’s Lobbying Spend Jumps 57%
There was a time a couple years ago when we pundits tracked Google’s lobbying spend by year. No longer, because that spend…
Apr 21, 2010
Privacy
Consumer Group Calls for Antitrust Investigation of Google
The U.S. Department of Justice should launch a broad antitrust investigation into Google’s search and advertising practices and consider a wide array…
Apr 21, 2010
Insurance
California’s Low Cost Auto Insurance Program
Record high unemployment rates across California mean many more uninsured drivers on the road. But there is help for low income motorists.…
Apr 21, 2010
Healthcare
The story inside United Healthcare’s jumping profits
Wall Street was moderately pleased today that the first-quarter profits of United Healthcare, the biggest health care company in the U.S., jumped…
Apr 21, 2010
Healthcare
If only actuaries and regulators were as cute as squirrel videos
Did you hear the one about the actuary and the federal regulator who walked into the bar? No? Neither has anyone else.…
Apr 20, 2010
Privacy
Google Boosts Federal Lobbying Spending In Q1
Spending Up 57 Percent Year-On-Year Google spent $4.03 million lobbying the federal government last year, according to records on the Senate site,…
Apr 20, 2010
Privacy
Should Google Be Broken Up Into Several Companies?
A Santa Monica, Calif.-based consumer watchdog group called, er, “Consumer Watchdog” intends to ask the U.S. Justice Department tomorrow during a press…
Apr 20, 2010Congress: Don’t Let Insurers Write The Rules That Limit Their Own Rate Increases
Feinstein Bill Would Close 'Enormous Hole' In Health Reform But Must Be Amended to Cut Industry Influence, Said Consumer Watchdog Washington, D.C.…
Apr 20, 2010
Insurance
Industry Seeks Change To Enable Rate Increases
Days ago, the California Department of Insurance cracked down on an insurance company that has been overcharging motorists for 15 years. The…
Apr 18, 2010
Insurance
Health Insurers Weighing Options To Get Ahead Of Reform
... in the not-too-distant future, some insurers will be subject to a process called risk-adjustment, which will attempt to neutralize the incentive…
Apr 18, 2010
Privacy
Poizner Asks Why Brown Remains Silent On Insurer
State Attorney General Jerry Brown won national attention for his move this week to investigate document-shredding involving Sarah Palin's scheduled speech at…
Apr 16, 2010
Insurance
Is that the best you can do, Mitch?
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell was asked directly if his strident opposition to financial reform was because he is acting on behalf…
Apr 16, 2010Consumer Watchdog Renews Calls for Probe Based on Evidence That Insurers Are Gaming Health Reform Law to Reap More Profit
U.S. Senate Report Finds That Insurers Re-Label Overhead, Administrative Costs as “Medical Care” to Meet New Law’s Requirement to Cut Overhead Washington,…
Apr 15, 2010
Privacy
WaMu revelations make Obama’s case for independent consumer regulator
President Obama should use this week's revelations about the depth of existing bank regulators’ failure to crack down on a Washington Mutual…
Apr 14, 2010
Insurance
California Accuses Insurer Mercury Of Overcharging Customers
Mercury Insurance Group, which is bankrolling a controversial ballot initiative on car insurance, was accused by state regulators Monday of overcharging California…
Apr 13, 2010