Insurance

Failure of Drug Importation Amendment in U.S. Senate is Latest Show of Industry’s Controlling Hand in Health Reform Debate, According to Consumer Watchdog

December 16, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The failure of the U.S. Senate to allow importation of prescription drugs to cut costs, much less the more effective direct bulk purchasing of prescription drugs, is just the latest example of how big industry controls the health reform debate, according Consumer Watchdog. </p>

Joe Lieberman and the corporate capture of health reform

December 14, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> When Sen. Joe Lieberman said last week that he might favor a health reform bill that traded away a "public option" for letting people over 55 buy into Medicare, he must not have checked with his bosses first. Now that the...</p>

Reform Bill Is Favorable For Banks

December 11, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p>  <strong>Federal Consumer Protection Laws Could Preempt State Laws<br /> </strong><br /> A standoff this week that threatened to stall House debate over sweeping financial regulatory reform ended with a deal seen as a victory for the nation's big banks. Rep. Melissa Bean (D-Ill.) and other moderate Democrats briefly held the so-called Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act hostage on Wednesday, demanding consideration of a proposal that would allow federal laws governing consumer protection to preempt those set by individual states. Bean and other members of the New Democrats coalition have received $6.5 million in campaign contributions this year from banking and financial interests, according to a study released Thursday by Consumer Watchdog, a liberal advocacy group. Bean, the coalition's vice chairwoman, has received nearly $400,000 from the financial sector this year, or about half of her total contributions, the study showed. </p>

DC Dispatch: How the House deals with financial reform

December 11, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

I'm having a hard time understanding how an industry that stole Americans’ money, gambled with it and pocketed billions, then came begging to taxpayers for a bailout when their bets went sour, has managed to keep the brakes on financial reform for this long...

Stem cell board triples vice chair’s pay

December 11, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

After only nine months on the job as vice chair of California's stem cell agency, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Torres" target="_blank" rel="noopener">former State Democratic Chairman Art Torres</a> has had his salary tripled.<br/> <br/> The...

Senate Health Care Bill Could Mean Less Coverage For Californians

December 10, 2009  ·  Jamie Court

As the U.S. Senate inches closer to a vote on the Democratic health care reform bill, a consumer advocate warns that the measure could lead to less coverage for Californians. Jamie Court, president of the nonprofit Consumer Watchdog, says that could change under the Senate version of the health care reform bill. "California has some of the strongest patient protection laws in the nation for providing certain types of coverage," he says, "be it mammograms, or second opinions or certain types of benefits for policies for cancer care."

UnitedHealth Urges Employees To Participate In Lobbyist Seminar

December 9, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> UnitedHealth Group, the nation's largest health insurance carrier, is urging employees to tell supervisors if they will attend an online seminar on health-care reform hosted by the company's top Washington lobbyist, according to an internal company e-mail sent to employees Wednesday morning. The newest e-mail was sent from United for Health Reform, an arm of the Minnesota-based insurer, and was obtained by the pro-reform group Consumer Watchdog. The message says that "participation is voluntary" and that UnitedHealth employees "may express any personal position or opinion" during the seminar. But the message also instructs employees to "please confirm your ability to attend with your supervisor." Judy Dugan, Consumer Watchdog's research director, called the e-mail "pure poitical harrassement of workers" and said the confirmation request "makes a joke of the disclaimer at the end that participation is 'voluntary'." </p>

Rate Proceedings Chart – Pending and Completed

December 8, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> For a graph of the nearly $2 billion California consumers saved between 2003 and 2010, click <a href="http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/images/inssavings.gif">here</a>.</p> <p> Below is a chart of Consumer Watchdog's pending and completed challenges to insurance companies' proposed rate changes in California.</p> <div class="Section1"> <table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse;"> <tbody> </tbody> </table> </div> <p> Pending</p> <div class="Section1"> <p> <strong><u>PENDING</u></strong></p>

Tossing stuff overboard in the Senate

December 8, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> The end game of the health reform bill in the Senate, with furious bargaining inside the Democratic Party, looks a lot like moving out of a house you've lived in for 20 years: As the moving truck pulls up, stuff you thought you couldn't live without ends up in the trash </p>

Cowards in suits

December 8, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> The Senate took up the right to abortion in the health reform debate today, with a proposal by Sen. Ben Nelson of Colorado to mirror the <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120254656">punitive restrictions</a> in the House version. Except for Nelson, who was a rabidly anti-choice governor, not one senator had the guts to say why he intends to vote for the amendment. Even Nelson just falsely called it no worse than the status quo. Total gray-suited cowards.  </p>

Chicken Little invades Congress

December 4, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> The sky is falling, said Chicken Little, and so say the health reform critics in the Senate. They are fearmongering relentlessly to kill health care reform. The health insurance conglomerates feeding them their lines are cackling with glee offstage. Listening to this poultry farm, day after day, is galling. The same conservatives who spent years bashing Medicare spending are now all but sobbing at the podium as they "defend" Medicare. </p>

US House Committee Sends Insurance Office Bill To The Floor

December 2, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> WASHINGTON, D.C. --The U.S. House of Representatives' Financial Services Committee unanimously voted to approve a bill forming a federal insurance office, sending the legislation to the House floor for final consideration. Consumer Watchdog took issue with the office's limited authority to pre-empt some state authority over insurance. "This bill is part of the insurance industry's ongoing push to deregulate insurance by limiting state regulators' authority and is sure to weaken consumer protection," said Carmen Balber, Washington director for the group, in a statement. </p>