Healthcare

Sarah Palin wasn’t the only Alaskan border-hopping for health care

March 9, 2010  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> Sarah Palin, the Cruella DeVille of anti-government-health care, caught everyone's attention with the story of her family hopping the border from Skagway, Alaska, into the Yukon Territory for Canadian government health care when Palin was a child. <a href="http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/03/08/13158001.html">Canadian newspapers</a> noted cattily that Palin previously described going to Juneau, Alaska, for the same treatment for her brother's burned foot. Whatever. I wanted to know whether other Alaskans went to Canada for medical care--and still do. </p>

Can’t pay for your health insurance?

March 2, 2010  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> Veteran political cartoonist Clay Bennett of Chattanooga has the solution... </p> <p>   </p>

White House staff finally sees malpractice victims

March 1, 2010  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> I just got off the phone with Consumer Watchdog Boardmember Kathy Olsen, who is in Washington, D.C. today along with her family, and medical malpractice victims and/or their families from four other states, for meetings at the White House with the Obama Administration. </p>

Lawsuit Targets Anthem Denial Policy

February 23, 2010  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> Anthem Blue Cross refused to pay for one of its California members to get a liver transplant at an Indiana University hospital to save money. Ephram Nehme's case is "Exhibit A" of another problem: insurers refusing to pay for or denying care that treating physicians order, Jerry Flanagan, healthcare director for the Consumer Watchdog advocacy organization, said at a news conference outside the courthouse. "Denials of life-saving, medically necessary care is the M.O. of an industry that puts profits before patients and yet another example of why Americans need a public option to the private insurance market," Flanagan said. </p>

HEALTHCARE Q&A — Not Starting From Scratch

February 23, 2010  ·  Consumer Watchdog

Don't states already regulate health insurance?<br /> <br /> States do regulate insurance, but the outcome is uneven and not always effective. In many states, regulators cannot evaluate and reject rate increases before they take effect. In California, other forms of insurance are regulated this way, but health insurance is not. Auto insurers, for example, are required to submit increases to a regulatory body for approval before they can start charging customers higher premiums. Consumers can request hearings to examine rate increases of more than 7%. This regulation has saved California drivers $62 billion since 1988, according to Consumer Watchdog, a consumer advocacy group.

Why shouldn’t Obama throw innocent patients under the bus? Ask Steven Olsen

February 23, 2010  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> As pressure builds toward Thursday's "bipartisan" presidential summit on health care reform, some Capitol Hill staffers have reported receiving calls from the White House claiming the President is ready to give up the legal rights of medical malpractice victims for GOP support. </p> <p> What's wrong with the trade-off? LA's local NPR talk radio host, Larry Mantle of KPCC's Air Talk, asked me yesterday in a midst of a <a href="http://www.scpr.org/programs/airtalk/2010/02/22/president-obama-unveils-health-care-plan/" target="_hplink" rel="noopener">debate</a> about Obama's new health care reform proposal, which appropriately did not mention any changes to medical malpractice accountability. So I told Steven Olsen's <a href="http://www.justiceforpatients.org/17_justforpat.html/" target="_hplink" rel="noopener">story.</a> </p> <p> Yesterday happened to be the 20th birthday for Steven Olsen, whose tragic story at the age of two year deeply touched me and every one who ever heard it. Steven and his terrific parents, Kathy and Scott, will be at the White House next Monday to stop the President from using the remedies of innocent patients as a bargaining chip to get Republican votes. If President Obama personally spends a few minutes with Steven, it's hard to imagine how his conscience will let him sell out the rights of injured patients for Republican votes. </p>

Experts Warn Of Medical Industry Cartels’ Power

February 21, 2010  ·  Consumer Watchdog

The planned spike in health insurance rates by Anthem Blue Cross in California is just the tip of a Titanic-size iceberg of exorbitant price increases, secret pricing and consolidation not only by insurers - but by the hospitals, doctors and medical device-makers that send the bills to the insurers. Insurers blame hospitals and doctors, doctors blame insurers, and hospitals blame doctors and medical device-makers in what academics call an inscrutable medical-industrial complex that rivals anything the defense industry ever invented. All these groups are combining into what many experts describe as cartels. Jerry Flanagan, health care policy director for Consumer Watchdog in Santa Monica, said the heath care system is "in a tug-of-war between warring tribes... over who has market dominance over price." Flanagan doesn't think the insurance industry is losing the battle. Consumers have almost no control over costs, no ability to shop and little incentive to do so because most patients neither buy their own insurance nor pay their medical bills directly. But they foot the bill in skyrocketing premiums, deductibles and co-pays.

Healthcare Reform With The Stroke Of A Pen: Obama Can Help 132 Million Without Congress

January 27, 2010  ·  Consumer Watchdog

Obama should close a legal loophole that currently prohibits 132 million Americans from holding their health insurance providers legally accountable for denials and delays of care"even if those denials or delays result in serious injury or death, according to the organization, Consumer Watchdog. Consumer Watchdog also asked Obama not to wait for Congress, but to re-establish a special assistant for consumer affairs in the White House"a post that the organization says every other Democratic president since John Kennedy has filled to be a voice for patients who lack legal remedies against insurance companies.

Dateline NBC on why being insured isn’t same as being covered

January 26, 2010  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> Here's the <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/35035291#35035291">full link</a> to last night's excellent Dateline NBC "Critical Condition," which followed insured patients as they were turned down by their health insurers for critical care. </p>

Health Insurers Use Pre-emptive Strike on Legislative Mandate in Florida

January 25, 2010  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> OLDWICK, N.J. -- In a pre-emptive strike on a legislative mandate, major health insurers in Florida have agreed to pay for what could be costly care for members diagnosed with cancer who participate in clinical trials. Jerry Flanagan, health care policy director for the California-based Consumer Watchdog, with offices in Washington, D.C., said it's likely legislators were threatening a mandate. Cancer patients in Florida are getting a short-term victory but "without a clear law on the books that requires this treatment, the insurance companies are free to back away from their promise in the future." </p>

Reform or no reform, insurers will weasel on “out of network” loopholes

January 19, 2010  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> The Washington Post today has <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/15/AR2010011503110.html">an eye-opening story today</a> on how a family ended up in crushing debt at an "in-network" hospital apparently jammed with out-of-network doctors. Tens of thousands of dollars later, their little boy's rare and deadly heart defect is at least semi-fixed, but the family finances are in ruins. It's a problem that won't be fixed by reforms that rely on the private insurance industry. But it's also a problem that Congress can partly cure, with or without bigger reforms. </p>

Congress Fights Healthcare Fatigue To Finish Bill

January 13, 2010  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> <strong>Under competing pressures from various lobbyists and voters more concerned about unemployment and the economy, Democrats scramble to carve out a compromise by month's end so they can move on.<br /> </strong> </p> <p> Meanwhile, consumer groups and other advocates of a "public option" are continuing to push for more oversight of the insurance industry, in anticipation that the final legislation will not include a government-run health plan to compete with commercial insurers. "With the public option apparently off the table... it is more important than ever for the House to insist on comprehensive regulation of the industry to ensure affordability and accountability for Americans who will now be required to buy private insurance," California-based Consumer Watchdog said Tuesday in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco). </p>