Insurance

Insurance CEO pay: So that’s where the premium increase went

August 11, 2010  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> There are days when the idea of private health insurance companies running health reform are more ludicrous than others. Today, we find that health insurance CEOs are raking in ever-higher compensation--up to $110 million a year for one retiring CEO. This is obviously where a lot of our ever-rising premium dollars are going. </p>

Santa Monica Consumer Group Alleges Google-Verizon Internet Plan Could Hinder Universal Internet Access

August 11, 2010  ·  John M. Simpson

A Santa Monica-based consumer watchdog group this week decried a proposal by Google and Verizon Communications that it says would put an end to net neutrality and create a system of pay-to-play haves and have-nots when it comes to internet access.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_neutrality_in_the_United_States" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a>

California Should Regulate Health Care Premiums

August 11, 2010  ·  Consumer Watchdog

Within a few years, 6 million uninsured California residents will finally get medical coverage as part of the newly passed federal health care reforms. But what will they pay? And who will regulate premiums as insurers angle for customers? Right now, Sacramento has little control over health care rates, largely because industry lobbyists have killed efforts to change a rules-free marketplace. According to the organization Consumer Watchdog, health insurance interests have given $800,218 over the last three years to members of the state Senate, where showdown votes on insurance controls are due this month.

State Makes It Tougher For Health Insurers To Cancel Policies

August 9, 2010  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> California's new rules let applicants say they're not sure or they can't remember the answer to a health history question. Federal health reform allows insurers to cancel a policy only if there was intent to deceive. Jamie Court directs the nonprofit group <a href="../../../">Consumer Watchdog</a>. "Having the double whammy of both the new federal rules and the state insurance commissioner's regulations, makes it very clear to insurance companies what they can and cannot do," said Court. </p>

Illinois Insurance Regulators Want More Oversight

August 7, 2010  ·  Consumer Watchdog

Illinois regulators will ask lawmakers for the authority to approve or deny health insurance rate increases, saying residents need protection from skyrocketing costs that aren't justified. The state's effort to push for more aggressive oversight is "a huge step forward," in protecting an estimated 3 million residents covered by state-regulated policies, said Carmen Balber, director of Consumer Watchdog, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that monitors how states regulate insurance rates. "We're talking about a product that in just a few years every American will have to have," Balber said. "With skyrocketing costs and mandatory coverage, regulators have to act to protect consumers from what would an unaffordable requirement."

States Implement Reforms of Healthcare as Lawsuits Proceed

August 6, 2010  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> The California-based nonprofit Consumer Watchdog made that point in a letter sent Tuesday to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius urging her to reject Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s (R) application for a rate review grant. The letter criticizes the governor’s application because California would use the money to hire actuaries to review rate filings without giving them the authority to reject rate requests. “I think the intent of the grants was specifically to enhance states’ ability to thoroughly evaluate and, where it can, to approve or disapprove rates,” said Carmen Balber, the group’s Washington director. </p> <p>   </p>

Top 10 Reasons You Can’t Trust Mercury Insurance

August 4, 2010  ·  Consumer Watchdog

For years, Mercury Insurance illegally overcharged hundreds of thousands of California drivers hundreds of dollars per year, until they were forced to stop in the wake of a Court of Appeal decision in 2005.

The Next Health Reform Debate: What’s an ‘Unreasonable’ Insurance Premium Hike?

August 3, 2010  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> Carmen Balber, director of the Washington office for Consumer Watchdog, an insurance industry critic that has been keeping close tabs on the law's implementation, said that increased public scrutiny has served to pull back some insurance companies. But, she said, that isn't enough. "There's only so much that shaming the industry will do," she said. What really needs to happen, she said, is for state regulators to get the resources and political power to investigate and crack down on unjustified rate hikes. "That's why the state grant program is so important," she said. </p>

Health Insurance Rates: California Plans to Crack Down, But How Hard?

July 30, 2010  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> <strong>As an Aug. 31 deadline nears, state lawmakers haggle over how difficult it should be for companies to significantly raise premiums.</strong> </p> <p> Consumer groups, meanwhile, say that allowing insurance companies to pick the actuaries who review their filings would give them too much influence over the process. "Insurance companies in California will be getting millions of new customers, and the least that Californians should get in return is strong oversight of rates and premiums," said Judy Dugan, research director for Consumer Watchdog in Santa Monica. "Instead, the governor's proposal would prevent effective oversight." </p>

Insurance lobbying thriller

July 28, 2010  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> Can insurance company lobbying of federal health regulation be turned into a gripping spy thriller? OK, no. But this is as close as it gets... <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wendell-potter/health-insurers-leaning-o_b_661498.html">a Huffpost story by former insurance exec Wendell Potter.</a> He's crystal-clear about the lengths to which for-profit insurance companies will go, if it means they can keep their record profits and obscene executive salaries at the expense of Americans struggling to get or afford health care. And they're assuming that no one is really watching. Thanks, Wendell. </p>

You Can’t Trust Mercury Insurance

July 26, 2010  ·  Jamie Court

<h2 class="rtecenter"> <img class=" size-full wp-image-2160" alt="" src="https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/images_canttrustmercury-pagemasthead.gif" style="width: 555px; height: 183px;" width="555" height="183" /></h2> <p>  </p> <p class="rtecenter"> <b>Mercury Is At It Again - It Wants To Repeal Consumer Protection<br /> Laws That Voters Defended in 2010</b></p>

Web 2.0 hearing overshadowed by politics

July 23, 2010  ·  John M. Simpson

Consumer Watchdog's John Simpson testified at a <a href="http://oversight.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5040:qgovernment-20-part-i-federal-agency-use-of-web-20-technologies&catid=48:hearings&Itemid=29">hearing</a> yesterday on federal agency use of Web 2.0 technology, but the hearing got off to a rocky start when Ranking Member Patrick McHenry (R-NC) opted for a procedural gimmick and even introduced a motion to adjourn the hearing before the witnesses were able to testify.<a href="http://oversight.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5040:qgovernment-20-part-i-federal-agency-use-of-web-20-technologies&catid=48:hearings&Itemid=29"></a>