Insurance

Big Insurance Companies Have Absolutely No Shame

November 14, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> ED SCHULTZ, HOST: UnitedHealthcare, the country's largest insurer, is pressuring employees to do their dirty work for them and lobby Congress against the Senate health care bill. Consumer Watchdog says the e-mail sent to employees are full of misleading GOP talking points such as the claim that millions of Americans will lose coverage. They also say the campaign amounts to intimidation of employees of United Health Group, and its main operating division, UnitedHealthcare. And UnitedHealth isn't alone in its dirty tactics. </p>

Watchdog Group Questions Propriety Of DSCC Fundraiser For Bingaman, Others

November 13, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

A $5,000-per-ticket “national innovation conference,” hosted by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and attended by senators including New Mexico’s Jeff Bingaman, is being criticized by a <a href="http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/corporateering/articles/?storyId=31125">consumer watchdog group</a> that says it gives the appearance of “pay to play.”

UnitedHealth Urges Its Workers To Lobby Senate

November 13, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<b>Minnetonka-based UnitedHealth suggested its employees write U.S. senators to oppose health care reform proposals and even provided letters to use.</b><br><br> The Nov. 10 e-mail, with the subject line "Write Your Senators!" was sent by United for Health Reform, the company's lobbying group. It was made public Thursday by Consumer Watchdog, a consumer advocacy group based in Santa Monica, Calif., and Washington, D.C.

Insurer Enlists Employees To Fight Health Reform

November 12, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> <strong>Consumer Group Accuses UnitedHealth Of Intimidating Workers </strong> </p> The nation's largest health insurance carrier is urging its employees to lobby the Senate against reform proposals that would hurt the firm's bottom line, according to copies of e-mails released Thursday by an advocacy group. UnitedHealth Group, which is based in Minnesota, e-mailed its 75,000 employees Tuesday, asking them to write their senators and local newspapers in opposition to a public insurance option, alleging that "government-run health care" will force "millions of Americans" to drop their current coverage.<br /> <p>   </p>

Blizzard of lies in Congress

November 11, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> As the old saying goes, you can fool some of the people all of the time. That appears to be the target audience of politicians who blatantly lie about what health reform would do, and never apologize. They were at peak form during the debate over the house health reform bill on Saturday and Ruth Marcus at the Washington Post <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/10/AR2009111013406.html?wpisrc=newsletter&sid=ST2009111013591">called them out</a>. </p>

New Software Helps Translate Your Complex Medical Bills Into Simple Language

November 10, 2009  ·  Jerry Flanagan

While Intuit's new software is consumer-friendly, Consumer Watchdog's Flanagan warns that such easy-pay products miss the real problem for health care consumers: They don't help reduce costs.  "Even if you are armed with this information, it's not as if you shop for health care directly. You go with your insurance company," Flanagan said. "It's unclear that the information really translates into any new buying power."

California Moves Closer To Insurance By The Mile For Drivers

November 10, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<strong>Watchdog Group Says New Rules Give Insurance Companies All The Power </strong><br /> <br /> Two thirds of homes in the country would save about $270 per year per car with mileage based plans according to a study from Brookings. However, Carmen Balber from Consumer Watchdog says that the new policies cater to the insurance industry and don’t require the premiums to reduce when driving does. "I think the regulations were drafted to guarantee that insurers win, because they were left with all of the choice," Balber said.

Consumer Group Says AG Brown Should Appoint Independent Counsel In Insurance Matter

November 10, 2009  ·  Harvey Rosenfield

The <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/29/MNQR1ABRG3.DTL">consumer advocacy group which charged</a> state <a href="http://ag.ca.gov">Attorney General Jerry Brown</a> caved into pressure from a major insurance firm in rewriting a ballot measure summary has now called on Brown's office to appoint an independent counsel in the case.<a href="https://consumerwatchdog.org"> Consumer Watchdog</a>, headed by attorney Harvey Rosenfield, said in a letter to Brown today that he believes the AG's office has been "deficient" in its response to the organization's recent public records act request; the request called for documents detailing the extent of the AG office's communications with Mercury General, a major insurance firm -- and a past campaign donor to Brown.

The Debate Over Selling Insurance Across State Lines

November 6, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

A core feature of the health overhaul bill unveiled this week by House Republicans - and of GOP plans for years - would allow individual health insurance policies to be sold across state lines. Regulation is important, critics of the GOP proposal say. In addition to requiring coverage of certain problems and treatments, some states require insurers to sell policies to all applicants and price them uniformly within the same geographic area regardless of individuals' health status. If insurers can sell beyond state lines, the concern is that consumers would be attracted to the least comprehensive policies because they'd be cheapest. "You get what you pay for in these policies (and) consumers won't realize it until they are sick and it's too late," said Jerry Flanagan, health care policy analyst for Consumer Watchdog, a California consumer health group.

Insurers, Critics Face Off Over Customer ‘Discounts’

November 5, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

Billionaire insurance executive George Joseph has launched a California ballot initiative that would allow insurers to give discounts to long-term customers and, critics contend, punish those who have gone without coverage – despite a voter-approved law banning the latter practice. Santa Monica-based Consumer Watchdog– a perennial foe of Joseph and his company, Mercury Insurance– filed two ballot initiatives of its own to block Joseph’s initiative, as well as make other changes in state law. The group notes that Joseph’s Mercury Insurance is trying to get voters to approve something that has been rejected in the courts, and that the true impact of the initiative is not to give discounts but to charge more, or deny coverage completely, when applicants have gaps in their coverage.

New Calls For Brown To Produce Docs In “Tapegate”

November 5, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

The consumer advocacy group at the center of the flap about Jerry Brown’s ex-spokesman secretly recording phone calls has sent a formal demand to the Attorney General’s office, seeking all internal documents that could shed light on the matter. The Public Records Act request, filed by Consumer Watchdog, is one of at least three separate efforts to dig deeper into the controversy, which began with the disclosure last week that Scott Gerber, Brown’s former press secretary, recorded conversations with reporters without informing them or asking their consent. Gerber resigned on Monday.

Pay-As-You-Drive Car Insurance Revs Up

November 4, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

Car insurance by the tankful? Not quite, but California moved a step closer last month to pay-as-you-drive policies that could allow motorists to buy insurance like they do gasoline -- a little at a time. Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner released regulations permitting and authorizing mileage verification for pay-as-you-drive, without dictating what form such plans must take. Carmen Balber of Consumer Watchdog, a nonprofit public policy group, said the new regulations cater to the insurance industry by neither requiring firms to offer pay-as-you-drive policies nor requiring premiums to drop as mileage does. Balber said insurers could abuse the new regulations by proposing policies that verify miles driven, something the industry has desired, without offering price breaks.<br />