Consumer 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.
Consumer Watchdog Campaign: Following Doctor’s Comment That Physician Drug Abuse “Doesn’t Matter,” Father Who Lost His Children To A Drug Addicted Driver Calls on...
Sacramento, CA – Bob Pack, whose two young children were killed by a drugged driver, today called on California lawmakers to repudiate shocking remarks that physician impairment due to substance abuse "Doesn't Matter" by signing the petition for his ballot measure to improve patient safety.
Consumer Watchdog Calls On Kaiser CEO To Disclose Substance Abuse & Patient Safety Problems At Health System Following High Profile Denials By Kaiser Doc
Santa Monica, CA --- Consumer Watchdog wrote incoming Kaiser CEO Bernard Tyson to take issue with “disconcerting statements made by one of your employees, Dr. Paul Phinney, the immediate past President of the California Medical Association, who has maintained that medical negligence and substance abuse among physicians are not significant patient safety issues that need to be addressed.”
Lessons From The Cancellation Crisis
An analysis just released by California’s health insurance exchange, Covered California, offers the first real insight into the depth of the Obamacare cancellation crisis.
Covered California Blocks Obama’s Plan to Delay Cancellations, Rate Hikes for 50% of Cancelled Californians
Santa Monica, CA – Leaders of California's health insurance marketplace today voted to block a reprieve on health insurance cancellations proposed by President Obama last week and to allow health insurance companies to hike rates on 50% of cancelled Californians.
Consumer Watchdog Urges DOJ to Reject Merger That Would “Fully Corporatize Radio in Top 100 Markets”
Washington, DC — A proposed merger between major radio station owner Cumulus Media and radio content provider Dial Global/Westwood One would create a clear radio duopoly (with Clear Channel Communications) in the nation’s largest radio markets, said Consumer Watchdog in a letter to the Department of Justice antitrust division.
Brown Out
Governor Jerry Brown waited until late Friday to veto legislation requiring coroners to report to the medical board whenever narcotics cause deaths. The medical establishment has opposed the bill, which is aimed at weeding out the small number of dangerous and drug dealing doctors who are responsible for the vast majority of prescription drug overdose deaths.
Is Your Doctor Opposed To Peeing In A Cup? Check The List
A drunk Orange County plastic surgeon reportedly disfigured at least a half dozen patients before losing his license. A Rocklin anesthesiologist was arrested for taking anesthesia through an extra IV line while administering it to a patient. A meth-using doctor who was convicted of drug dealing will get his doctor's license back after a year.