Healthcare

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  ·  Judy Dugan

<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>

Oh, the irony

August 14, 2009  ·  Carmen Balber

You may remember the Civil Justice Association of California from decades of attacks on consumer rights such as <a href="http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/corporateering/articles/?storyId=17861">Proposition 64</a>, the ballot initiative that <a href="http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/corporateering/articles/?storyId=12222">let companies off the hook</a> under California's unfair competition law for any harm that is not measured in dollars, like loss of health, environmental damage or consumer deception ...

‘Death panel’ lies claim a victim — Us and our families

August 14, 2009  ·  Judy Dugan

<p> The "death panel" has killed something, all right: a benefit that families need and want, namely the right to sit down with their family doctor to discuss wrenching issues of living wills, hospice care and end-of-life care...</p>

Schiff’s Healthcare Forum: The Sound and the Fury

August 12, 2009  ·  Jerry Flanagan

<p> <a href="http://uprisingradio.org/home/?p=9389">Click here to listen to the audio of the program</a>. </p> <p> Hundreds of people, from all sides of the political spectrum showed up at the Alhambra Civic Center Library last night for a health care forum presented by Congressman Adam Schiff. The event featured several medical doctors and healthcare reform advocates including NBC4’s medical reporter, Dr. Bruce Hensel, and Jerry Flanagan, the Health Care Advocate at Consumer Watchdog. </p>

If you like the insurance you have…

August 3, 2009  ·  Judy Dugan

<p> Everyone in DC keeps assuring Americans they can keep the private health insurance they have now, if they like it. Yet health insurance you "like" is about the same as having a car you like, but never drive further than the grocery store. Michael Hiltzik of the LA Times explains why, asking <a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hiltzik3-2009aug03,0,6650122.column">why we're "so intent on protecting the private option,"</a> since its biggest feat is the current health care crisis. </p>

Lobbying orgies, big and small, on health reform

July 30, 2009  ·  Judy Dugan

<p> The lobbying dollars being lathered around Congress are the best reason to <a href="http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/patients/protpatact9/">click here </a>and send a message to your members of Congress, letting them know that votes as well as dollars are at stake in health reform. The whole health care industry is pouring in at least <a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/health-care-reform/2009/07/health_care_continues_its_inte.html">$1.4 million dollars a day</a> to preserve its profits at your expense. But it's easier to understand what's happening on a smaller scale. So let's go to McAllen, Texas. </p>

Industry Cash Flowed To Drafters of Reform — Key Senator Baucus Is a Leading Recipient

July 21, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

Jerry Flanagan, a health-care analyst with Consumer Watchdog, a California-based advocacy group, said the tide of campaign contributions amounts to "a huge down payment" by companies that expect favorable policies in return. "That is the cold reality of big-money politics," he said.

Baucus Reels In Big Healthcare Donations

July 21, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Healthcare industry lobbyists have showered the Democratic U.S. senator leading reform efforts with $1.5 million in donations, records indicate. The contributions amount to "a huge down payment" by companies expecting friendly treatment, Jerry Flanagan of the advocacy group Consumer Watchdog told The Washington Post.

Health reform should prevent medical errors not accountability for malpractice

July 17, 2009  ·  Carmen Balber

<p> I’m catching up on House health care hearings this morning (watching one live and one recorded keeps things interesting) and tuned in to two debates on limiting protections for victims of medical malpractice. Rather than focus on saving money and protecting patients by preventing medical errors from occurring in the first place... </p>

Groups Can Guide Confused Patients

July 7, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

Consumer Watchdog, the non-profit organization, with offices in California and Washington, D.C., looks out for patients in a number of ways. Its broad goal, the group says, is to remake a health-care system in which hospitals, doctors and insurance companies put profit before patients. It also fights for laws that protect Americans from junk health-insurance policies -- the kind that don't cover you when you get sick.