Healthcare

Consumer Group Objects to Kennedy Health Reform ‘Deal’

February 21, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

If Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) is "inching toward a consensus" with healthcare industry groups on a framework for comprehensive health reform, one activist group with a liberal bent is none too happy about it. California-based Consumer Watchdog (formerly called the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights) faxed a letter Friday to Kennedy and the rest of the Senate protesting their "back door negotiations" with healthcare lobbyists.

Failures of the Massachusetts health insurance mandate

February 18, 2009  ·  Carmen Balber

Massachusetts’ health care law fails as a model for national reform. That’s the finding of a <a href="http://www.pnhp.org/mass_report/mass_report_Final.pdf">new report released today in Washington DC</a> by physicians with Harvard...

In Caring Hands

February 8, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> <strong>As an executive of WellPoint and its top doctor, Sam Nussbaum's image is a balancing act that belies his stern focus on improving the lives of the health insurer's 35 million members</strong>.<br /> <br /> "The idea that we would want a private company that has a profit motive to be the arbiter of what is necessary and unnecessary care, that's almost a joke," said Jerry Flanagan, health-care policy director at Consumer Watchdog, a California-based consumer rights group. </p>

Health Savings Accounts Are Ill-Advised

February 4, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

Critics of health savings accounts counter that the plans favor the healthy and wealthy, and can increase medical costs for everyone else by requiring people to take out high-deductible insurance policies that kick in only after thousands of dollars in healthcare expenses have been rung up. "Most people can't even afford to put money into the account," said Jerry Flanagan, health policy director for Consumer Watchdog in Santa Monica. "All the money goes into premiums and deductibles."

Why is Daschle Out And Geithner in?

February 3, 2009  ·  Jamie Court

<p> Tom Daschle <a href="http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/03/tom-daschle-withdraws-as-health-nominee/?hp">explained</a> his withdrawal from twin posts as the point person on ObamaCare and secretary of Health and Human Services by...</p>

Ousted UHW Leaders Form New Union

January 29, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

The ousted leaders of Oakland-based United Healthcare Workers West on Wednesday announced that they have formed a new union and intend to begin recruiting their former members, a continuation of brinkmanship between UHW and the Service Employees International Union. As accusations and counter-accusations continued to fly, other groups began taking sides. Consumer Watchdog, a patients' rights group, and the California Nurses Assn. both made public their support of UHW's former leadership, which they say negotiated better contracts.<br />

Make Medicare ‘as big as Americans want it to be’

January 26, 2009  ·  Judy Dugan

<p> <img src="http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/images/blog/null/uscare.png" alt="uscare.png" title="uscare.png" hspace="10" vspace="10" width="130" height="138" align="left" />Health care reform is fantastically messy. No matter how bad and cruel the current U.S. system, it won't be tossed out for something sleek and efficient. The latest carrier of that message is surgeon and writer Atul Gawande, in <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/01/26/090126fa_fact_gawande">a can't-stop-reading essay</a> in the New Yorker, "Getting From There to Here." It's bad news for full-blown single-payer healthcare. But as Consumer Watchdog's Jamie Court argues persuasively in <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-court24-2009jan24,0,3164270.story">an OpEd in the Los Angeles Times,</a> it's all the more reason to allow anyone to buy into Medicare--the familiar and comfortable choice. </p>

Open Up Medicare To All

January 24, 2009  ·  Jamie Court

My parents can get Medicare, so why not me? Americans should not have to turn 65 years old or become disabled to have access to a public healthcare program that controls overhead costs, provides broad, affordable access to care and protects patients against big bills. President Obama should open Medicare to all Americans who lose their jobs, cannot afford private health insurance or simply prefer it to private insurance or an HMO.

Follow the (insurance lobby’s) money

January 14, 2009  ·  Judy Dugan

<p> In the race to influence health care reform, the insurance industry and major corporations just made a big score in the toy department. RAND Corp. <a href="http://sev.prnewswire.com/health-care-hospitals/20090113/DC5832613012009-1.html">today announced</a> a new online "analytic tool" of health reform proposals for "policymakers and interested parties." It leans hard toward having individuals pay for their own private insurance and doesn't even list a true public choice like opening Medicare to all. No wonder: Health insurers and Big Pharma bought and paid for it. </p>

California Ruling Halts Balance Billing for ER Care

January 10, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> SACRAMENTO, CA -- Health insurers and medical providers will have to work out balance-billing disputes among themselves, the California Supreme Court ruled. "Health insurers and HMOs are as much to blame for the problem as doctors. Sometimes balance billing results when doctors want too much money. Other times, insurers refuse to pay fair rates. One thing for certain is that patients should not have to pay a cent," Jerry Flanagan, health care policy director for Consumer Watchdog, said in a statement. </p>

Patients Off Hook In Emergency Room Fee Dispute

January 9, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> Emergency room doctors who think a patient's HMO has underpaid them can't bill the patient for the difference and must seek whatever redress they can from the health plan, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday in a big-money dispute in the medical industry. "The ruling puts the burden of disputed medical fees where it belongs, on insurers and doctors, not on the patients who are far too often caught in the middle," said Jerry Flanagan of the advocacy group Consumer Watchdog. </p>

State Supreme Court Backs ER Patients Over Billing

January 9, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

In a decision with broad implications for health care consumers, the California Supreme Court has ruled that medically insured patients may not be billed for emergency care that their health plans refuse to pay. Consumer groups were pleased with Thursday's decision. "The bottom line is that this is a dispute between insurers and doctors," said Jerry Flanagan, the health care policy director for Consumer Watchdog. "It's up to the doctors and insurers to work out what the fair rate is to be paid. The patients shouldn't have to pay a dime."