Insurance

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>

Google’s Book-Scan Deal Is Not Solid Yet

November 28, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

Google Inc.'s settlement with authors and publishers over the digital scanning of books got a preliminary approval from a federal judge last week, but the controversy may be far from over. In fact, legal experts and industry observers who have been closely following the case believe the fight over Google's ambitious book-scanning efforts is just starting all over again.<br />

Your Health Care Dollars at Work, Paying for Blue Cross ‘Robocalls’

November 25, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> Ok, we already know that <a href="http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/patients/articles/?storyId=31128">United HealthCare, Anthem/Wellpont and other</a> insurance conglomerates are using your health insurance premiums to "help" their employees lobby Congress against consumer-friendly health reforms. Now we find Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina <a href="http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/11/nc_health_insurer_being_probed_for_campaign_agains.php#more">using your premium dollars </a>in an even more irritating and likely illegal way: political robocalls against health reform, probably at dinnertime. </p>

Disabled Turn To State For Help, But State Turns Them Away

November 20, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

With lawmakers close to passing a health care overhaul plan, the issue of regulating workplace benefits remains vital because the proposals preserve the current employer-provided system without added legal remedies to patients. Jamie Court, president of Santa Monica-based Consumer Watchdog, said advocacy groups like his plan to push ERISA reform if health reform includes an insurance mandate. "Once you tell Americans they have to contribute toward a policy, then the government has an absolute duty to ensure the policy is worth the paper its written on," Court said.

Wellpoint’s fake-ish numbers

November 19, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> Health insurance conglomerate Anthem Wellpoint recently tried to<a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1009/Health_insurers_hope_third_times_the_charm_on_cost_reports.html"> pawn off in Congress</a> an internal analysis "proving" that health reform would raise health insurance rates 100% or more for many people. A look deeper into the company's <a href="http://wellpoint.com/newsroom/stats_facts.asp">own data</a> shows just how twisted Wellpoint's math is. </p>