Healthcare

WellPoint, United Healthcare Accused Of Illegal Actions

September 3, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<strong>The insurers pressured employees to lobby against healthcare reform, Consumer Watchdog alleges.</strong><br /> <br /> The nation's two largest health insurers have been pressuring employees to lobby against healthcare reform in Congress in violation of a California law against coerced political activity, a consumer group alleged Wednesday. Consumer Watchdog in Santa Monica has asked California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown to investigate its claim that UnitedHealth Group and WellPoint Inc. pushed workers to write their elected officials, attend town hall meetings and enlist family and friends to ensure an overhaul that matches their interests.

Consumer Group Says UnitedHealthcare, Wellpoint Violated Calif. Law

September 3, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

A Santa Monica group has urged California Attorney General Jerry Brown to probe whether the nation’s two largest health insurers have asked their workers to lobby Congress -- during business hours -- to weaken health reform. Consumer Watchdog on Wednesday said in a letter to Brown that Minneapolis-based UnitedHealthcare and Wellpoint Inc. of Indianapolis have launched national campaigns to individually “assist” employees in writing and calling members of Congress. The coercion, the Santa Monica group states, is illegal under the California Labor Code.

PacifiCare kill rate 40%, CIGNA’s 33%, according to gov’t data

September 2, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> <a href="http://www.calnurses.org/media-center/press-releases/2009/september/california-s-real-death-panels-insurers-deny-21-of-claims.html">New data from California</a> unearthed by the California Nurses Association reveals top health insurers deny claims with rates that make Vegas gambling look good.   </p>

Did Health Insurers Lean On Their Employees To Lobby Congress — On Work Time?

September 2, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

It's one thing to see a rowdy health care town hall meeting on TV. It's another to have your boss tell you to go to one. Or write your Congressman about health care.  Yet that's what Consumer Watchdog -- a SoCal uh, consumer watchdog -- is alleging that two major health insurers have done to their charges.

Think You’re Insured? Not So Fast!

August 26, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> For years, Shafer had paid high monthly premiums for what he thought was a first-rate health insurance plan only to find out that there's a gaping hole in the system. Judy Dugan is the Director of Research for Consumer Watchdog. She says: "It's a real dirty secret of our medical system that you can make sure you've gone to a network hospital, that the main doctor who's treating you is in network, but then even if you're unconscious and can't make a decision, you can get an out of network surgeon." </p>

Goodbye Senator Kennedy

August 26, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

A quiet recess week in Washington turned somber this morning with the news that Senator Ted Kennedy passed away late last night after a year-long battle with brain cancer. I can’t claim to have known Senator Kennedy, but the one time I did meet him it was in the course of what he called the “cause of my life”...

Europe’s the leader in drug research; What is it we’re paying extra for?

August 26, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> The drug companies' argument against letting the government bargain for bulk prices on prescription drugs is so familiar that even talk radio hosts know it by heart: If the U.S. cuts drug prices (like Europe has), the great American engine of pharmaceutical research will put on the brakes. But it turns out U.S. drug companies do less research than European companies, Europe's lead is expanding, and companies there make healthy domestic profits. So why are we overpaying? </p>

Goldhill is a (sincere) crackpot, and The Atlantic is his enabler

August 24, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> I shouldn't have read the <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200909/health-care">Atlantic magazine cover story</a> just before bedtime last night, just like I shouldn't watch "Saw" before hitting the pillow. It's a radical and repulsive health care proposal by media executive David Goldhill, who, after a year of pondering health care, is trumpeting his "Eureka!" idea to drive down prices and improve quality: Make patients pay more--up to $50,000 a year--for health care. It's like consumers driving down DVD prices, he says, and look how cheap DVDs are now! </p>

California stem cell board backs public option for healthcare reform

August 21, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> Between voting to reject most of the recommendations from the state's good government panel and handing out $16 million in grants to stem cell researchers, the stem cell agency's board ventured into one of the hottest debates of the...</p>

More About Health Co-Ops

August 20, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

Q: What is the biggest drawback of cooperatives?<br /> <br /> A: Critics of health insurance cooperatives point out that many are too small and weak to have an impact on the health system. Consumer Watchdog, a consumer advocacy group, says purchasing cooperatives formed in Florida, Texas and Colorado to provide health coverage to small businesses failed to attract enough customers to become viable.

Words to remember on “Socialized Medicine”

August 19, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> Here's a memorable statement against U.S. health care reform: "Behind it will come other Federal programs that will invade every area of freedom as we have known it in this country. Until one day ... we will awake to find that we have socialism. And if you don't do this and if I don't do it [to kill this idea], one of these days you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it once was like in America when men were free." Who said it? </p>

The Uninsured: Free Clinic

August 15, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> MIKE VON FREMD (ABC NEWS):  (Voiceover) This event was sponsored by Remote Access Medical, an organization started to serve third world countries. It's now helping people in America's second largest city.<br /> <br /> JAMIE COURT (CONSUMER WATCHDOG): This is the poster child for everything that's wrong in American health care,<br /> when you see working Americans, people with health insurance coming here because their health insurance isn't good enough. </p>