Healthcare

Let’s break a couple of rules

June 17, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> Yeah, I know that some things are now shunned in the consumer end of the health reform debate: Don't mention Canada because it's been demonized as some kind of socialism (and it's full of foreigners, eh?). And ditto for so-called single payer or "Medicare for All" because it's dead in D.C. Here's a blatant violation, however, for the sake of excellent myth-busting.  </p>

HMO execs’ ‘Seven Dwarfs’ moment

June 17, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

Democrats in Congress who want strong reform should strive for a repeat of yesterday's fireworks. It's time to put the health insurance executives on the spot and give patients who have  been victimized by company policies a spotlight.

No Solidarity For Labor

June 15, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> SEIU head Andrew Stern dismisses the idea that the infighting is derailing labor's progress in Washington. It's a sign of union strength, he argues, that discussions on card check continue. "No other bill could have withstood this kind of opposition and still survived," he says. Still, labor supporters like Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog, an advocacy group, are worried. "Any time you have labor fighting, it gives politicians an excuse to buy big business' argument," he says. </p>

Doctors’ lobby attack on health reform seeks malpractice caps in Obamacare

June 11, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> The American Medical Association has proven again that the greed of the medical insurance complex is the chief obstacle to health care reform in America. </p>

Body Of Lies: Patients Aren’t 100% Honest With Doctors

June 9, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> <strong>When patients aren't truthful, misled doctors may give a wrong diagnosis or treatment.</strong> </p> <p> Patients can refuse to release the records, but if they do, the company can refuse to sell them a policy or refuse to pay claims. This is part of the deal patients agree to by signing on to the insurance contract. And it doesn't take much in a patient's records to nix the sale of a policy. "A case of acne can do it," says Jerry Flanagan, an advocate with Consumer Watchdog. </p>

Meet Joe the Mechanic 2012 — The Video

June 5, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

This <a href="http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Multimedia/2009/May/0531Brown.aspx">powerful video,</a> from the new Kaiser Health Network, of a Massachusetts mechanic who says he cannot afford the state's mandatory health insurance is a look into the future for President Obama about the political danger he faces <a href="http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/patients/articles/?storyId=27751">embracing mandatory health insurance.</a>

The Rush Limbaugh of health care hires oil industry hit man

June 1, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> Gene Randall's name popped out of the news reports about a<a href="http://townhall.com/news/politics-elections/2009/05/26/opponents_step_up_criticism_of_obama_health_plan"> 30-minute fake-news infomercial</a> that aired on the NBC station in Washington yesterday. A disgraced billionaire who intends to kill national health reform paid for it and hired former CNN correspondent Randall, the "reporter" who also hosted <a href="http://www.oilwatchdog.org/articles/?storyId=27272">a 30-minute hit piece for Chevron</a> exonerating its deadly pollution in the Amazon. </p>

Health Care Activists Lament Single-Payer Snub

May 30, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> Health insurers and drugmakers have contributed millions of dollars to members of Congress. One of the top recipients of that money, said Consumer Watchdog, an advocacy group based in Santa Monica, was Sen. Max Baucus, D-Montana, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, who was running the hearings when the arrests took place this month. He accepted $413,000 in drug and health insurance campaign contributions during that time. </p>

Can Kennedy stick to his guns?

May 29, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> Every new report on Massachusetts' effort to create universal health care entirely through private insurance <a href="http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/patients/articles/?storyId=27547">raises the red flag higher-</a>-the insurers keep finding new ways to undercut affordability. Even so, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/28/AR2009052803772.html?hpid=sec-health">a leaked plan</a> by Sen. Ted Kennedy to model national reform on the Massachusetts effort contains--maybe--a saving grace. </p>

Antitrust Laws A Hurdle To Health Care Overhaul

May 27, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- President Obama’s campaign to cut health costs by $2 trillion over the next decade, announced with fanfare two weeks ago, may have hit another snag: the nation’s antitrust laws. Among the groups that say they have joined together to rein in health costs, besides the hospital and medical associations, are America’s Health Insurance Plans and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. Jamie Court, the president of Consumer Watchdog, an advocacy group, said he was wary of such joint efforts. "When companies that control the health care system get together to change it, there is a serious risk that they are doing it to stifle competition at the expense of consumers,” Mr. Court said.

Patents Leave Science Pending

May 25, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

Each side says it's waiting for the other to make an offer, but things may be moving backward. On Jan. 23, Dethlefs sent out a memo explaining to researchers that because of the "unresolved legal issue," it wouldn't be distributing cell lines that might come under the StemCells patents for the foreseeable future. The memo was posted last month by John M. Simpson, a stem cell policy advocate, on his blog at consumerwatchdog.org.

Baucus, Obama Say Single-Payer Not Achievable

May 19, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

HELENA, MT -- At a town hall meeting last Thursday in Rio Rancho, N.M., the first question directed to President Barack Obama came from a woman in the audience who wanted to know why Democratic lawmakers in Washington, D.C. refuse to discuss the idea of single-payer health care.