Blue Shield Finally Has To Pay
Remember, months ago, when we called out nonprofit Blue Shield for spending policyholder money to buy a luxury skybox at San Francisco…
Mar 18, 2015Consumer Watchdog’s President and Chairman of the Board is an award-winning and nationally recognized consumer advocate. Capitol Weekly, naming Jamie to its “Top 100” list of unelected movers and shakers in California politics, wrote, “Court has made a career of battling all comers in the interest of the public, and his take-no-prisoners approach has earned him plenty of enemies.” Jamie’s latest book is The Progressive’s Guide To Raising Hell: How To Win Grassroots Campaigns, Pass Ballot Box Laws And Get The Change You Voted For (Chelsea Green, 2010).
“Americans angry about the state of their government might find in Court’s persuasive manifesto a cause for action,” Publishers Weekly writes. “With great accessibility and a fired-up attitude, Court brings his lessons in empowerment to the people.” He is also the author of Corporateering: How Corporate Power Steals Your Freedom And What You Can Do About It (Tarcher Putnam, 2003) and co-author of Making A Killing: HMOs and the Threat To Your Health (Common Courage Press, 1999). Jamie has led dozens of major corporate and political campaigns to reform insurers, banks, technology companies, oil companies, utilities and political practices. He helped to pioneer the HMO patients’ rights movement in the United States, sponsoring successful laws in California and aiding them elsewhere, and was an early champion of many of the most important consumer protections in the federal Affordable Care Act years before they were enacted. In recent years, he has led the campaign to hold California oil refiners accountable for price gouging at the pump which resulted in the toughest oil refinery regulation in America.
A frequent media commentator and op-ed contributor, Jamie is a high-profile and stalwart defender of consumers’ rights. The Los Angeles Times calls him “a tireless consumer advocate.” The Wall Street Journal writes, “He’s notorious for his dramatic, sharp-tongued attacks on the health- and auto-insurance industries, and on any politician who takes their campaign cash.” His public interest career began as an advocate for the homeless and as a community organizer. Jamie’s Alma mater is Pomona College, where he graduated with a BA in History in 1989.
Remember, months ago, when we called out nonprofit Blue Shield for spending policyholder money to buy a luxury skybox at San Francisco…
Mar 18, 2015SANTA MONICA, CA -- Consumer Watchdog today called on Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to “suspend the suicide prevention program until it is…
Mar 12, 2015Leave it to Washington DC to hand Americans what is probably the greatest consumer victory from that town in a decade, then…
Feb 26, 2015Santa Monica, CA – Consumer Watchdog announced today that spot gas prices in Los Angeles have risen 25 cents since Tuesday when…
Feb 20, 2015Santa Monica, CA -- Following a Nebraska court’s ruling that the Keystone XL pipeline can be built, the nonprofit Consumer Watchdog said…
Jan 9, 2015The announcement by Senator Boxer, a true champion of the underdog (watch her Rage for Justice speech), that she will not run…
Jan 8, 2015I have been watching oil companies get away with price gouging for so many years that it was refreshing to see California's…
Dec 16, 2014$100 million spent by insurance companies against our two pro-consumer initiatives, coupled with an historic low voter turnout, was a recipe for…
Nov 5, 2014SANTA MONICA, CA – ABC News 10 reported Sunday that 44% of doctors on probation in San Diego were disciplined for substance…
Nov 3, 2014San Francisco, CA—Consumer Watchdog, the California Nurses Association and supporters of Yes on Proposition 45 delivered a truckload of steer manure to…
Oct 29, 2014Santa Monica, CA --- Consumer Watchdog Campaign today announced that advertising has begun for Yes on Proposition 45, which would give the…
Oct 27, 2014Santa Monica, CA— The Department of Insurance today declared Anthem Blue Cross’s 9.8% rate increase on small business “unreasonable,” but has no…
Oct 22, 2014Santa Monica, CA -- On Saturday, the three big health insurance companies that control California’s health insurance market gave another $12 million…
Oct 20, 2014El Segundo, CA -- Blue Shield policyholders joined with bedside nurses from the California Nurses Association, consumer advocates and other supporters of…
Oct 14, 2014Santa Monica, CA -- In response to the Associated Press’s disclosure of unusual no-bid contracts between California’s insurance exchange Covered California and…
Oct 13, 2014Listen to the audio recording of this press conference here.
Oct 6, 2014Santa Monica, CA --- The Yes On Prop 45 campaign today released its first television advertisement featuring three working registered nurses discussing…
Oct 1, 2014