Insurance

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>

California’s 1988 Insurance Battle Could See 2010 Reprise

November 18, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> Mercury General, a large auto insurer, wants to legalize premium discounts tolongtime customers and got a bill to that effect passed by the Legislature six years ago, but the law was overturned by the courts as violative of Proposition 103. Since then, Mercury has played a cat-and-mouse game with its foes in the lawyer-backed consumer protection field. Mercury has another ballot measure in the works, and Consumer Watchdog, the group that sponsored Proposition 103, claims that Attorney General Jerry Brown gave it a sweetheart official title. It's also threatening what some have called "nuclear war" with a rival measure attacking insurers' practices. </p>

California Department of Insurance Notice of Noncompliance v. Mercury Insurance Company

November 18, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> <em><strong>California Department of Insurance Notice of Noncompliance v. Mercury Insurance Company</strong></em> <br/> No. NC-03027545<br/> <br/> <em>Consumer Watchdog Joins Insurance Commissioner's Complaint Against...</em> </p>

Donabedian v Mercury Insurance Company

November 18, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<strong>Donabedian v Mercury Insurance Company</strong> <p> Los Angeles Superior Court No. BC249019<br /> Court of Appeal: <em><strong>Donabedian v. Mercury Insurance Company</strong></em> (2004) 116 Cal.App.4th 968 </p> <p> Consumer Watchdog Protects Public and Voters in Decade-Long Battle Against Overcharges by Mercury Insurance Company </p>

Report: UnitedHealth Urges Employees To Lobby Senate, Oppose Reform

November 17, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

“No United HealthCare employee would modify the lobbying letter to favor Medicare-for-All, or even a modest public option, knowing that his or her managers may be reading that e-mail,” said Judy Dugan, research director for Consumer Watchdog, in a statement. “They wouldn’t dare to speak against the company position unless they’ve already got a new job lined up.”

When Does Oversight Overstep?

November 16, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

There are mixed reviews among the scientific community about whether CIRM's close watch of their grantees is a good thing. To some, it is an important practice for public funding agencies such as CIRM to show the tax payers that their money is going towards productive and fruitful research. "I think the oversight is outstanding," said John Simpson, the stem cell project director at the advocacy group Consumer Watchdog in California. "It shows that they're not asleep at the switch. CIRM is functioning as both a grant making agency [and] also something of a steward of the funds it hands out."

Drug companies and banks: Bedfellows in abuse

November 16, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> I don't think you'll be shocked by this news, but drug companies are jacking up their prices in advance of new laws that might rein in their abuses. We know that credit card interest rates are through the roof, in the high teens for good customers and up to 30% overall. Now we find, thanks to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/16/business/16drugprices.html?_r=1&hp">a New York Times investigation,</a> that drug makers are ratcheting up wholesale prices even as inflation goes negative. </p>

Con: It’s An Industry Scam

November 15, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

When Californians enacted insurance reform with Proposition 103 in 1988, voters prohibited auto insurers from considering prior insurance coverage. Now, two decades later, Mercury Insurance, California's third largest auto insurer, wants to reestablish the costly and unfair practice.

Poizner’s Claims As Insurance Commissioner Questioned

November 15, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

SACRAMENTO, CA -- As he campaigns to become California's next governor, Republican Steve Poizner often proclaims that auto and homeowner insurance rates have fallen by $1.81 billion since he took over the state's Department of Insurance in January 2007. But one consumer group, which compiled statistics at the request of the Mercury News, argues that nearly half those reductions were the work of Poizner's predecessor, Democrat John Garamendi.