Healthcare
Consumer Watchdog fights to protect patients, improve health care quality and create universal care. We believe the health of patients should come before the financial wealth of health insurance companies, drug companies and other profit-driven health care corporations. We work toward a safer, affordable health care system by eliminating waste, fraud and profiteering.
In the mid to late 1990s, Consumer Watchdog pioneered the nation’s toughest HMO patients’ rights law. During the 2000s, we uncovered outrageous practices by health insurance companies that resulted in some of the strongest protections under Obamacare. These include the bans on preexisting condition limitations, medical underwriting and the ability of insurance companies to revoke policies for innocent omissions on enrollment forms.
Our current fights include campaigns to reduce the price of prescription drugs, implement a Medicare for all system and lower health insurance rates through proven regulation that has saved drivers and home owners hundreds of billions of dollars on their insurance rates in California.
Trump’s Health Plan Order Could Bring Back Days of Junk Insurance
Santa Monica, CA -- The White House’s executive order today seeking to allow for more “Association Health Plans” could turn the clock back to days when patients faced unlimited medical bills even when they played by the rules, the nonprofit nonpartisan group Consumer Watchdog said today.
Outrageous 35% Anthem Rate Hike Could Have Been Prevented
Santa Monica, CA—Anthem is raising rates on 135,000 California consumers who buy individual polices 35 percent because California is one of the few states without the ability to say no to unjustified rate hikes.
TGIF in America Again?
Sharing the midday, San Francisco sunlight with Bernie Sanders Friday, I had a rare feeling these days, that everything is going to be all right. It felt just the way Bob Marley sang it.
Trump’s Decision On Cost-Sharing Reduction Payments Could Hurt California Consumers
The Trump administration’s decision to give health insurers until Sept. 5 to file their 2018 rates will not have an effect in California.
That is because California insurers have already announced plans to raise rates an average of 12.5 percent next year.
Calif. Hits Kaiser With $2.2 Million Fine For Failing To Provide Required Medicaid Data
California officials have again slapped health care giant Kaiser Permanente with a multimillion-dollar fine for failing to provide data on patient care to the state’s Medicaid program.
California Health Care Fight May Show Democratic Party Future In Trump Era
As Democrats gear up for the 2018 election, they confront big challenges: Polls in the last election showed a general electorate that deeply distrusted the party’s leaders, while new surveys show the Democratic base has lost faith in government — and now many swing
How Would The American Healthcare Act Affect Californians?
WESTWOOD (CBSLA.com) — The Senate’s plan to replace the Affordable Care Act could be voted on next week.
If passed into law, how would the American Healthcare Act affect Californians?
Fewer people covered, higher costs for the elderly and dramatic cuts for the working poor, according to Gerald Kominski, director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.
Single Payer Takes A Step Forward
Late Wednesday afternoon, the Senate Health Committee voted decisively to move S.B. 562 to the floor of the Senate.
