Insurance

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 />

Your health reform: Powered by biofuels?

November 4, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> A <a href="http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2009/November/04/Rules-Committee-Dingell-Amendment.aspx">final batch of amendments </a>to the big House of Representatives health reform bill pokes a few sharp sticks at insurance companies. It also changes the tax law on production of biofuels. Say again? For me, it's a hallelujah moment--health policy and energy policy in the same bill!  But it's still completely unrelated to the health bill--or maybe not. Maybe it all comes back to getting the conservative "Blue Dog" Democrats on board. </p>

SF Chronicle calls on AG Brown to clear the air about secret tape recordings

November 4, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> The San Francisco Chronicle urged Cal. Attorney General Jerry Brown to "clear the air" today <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/11/03/ED181AE2SP.DTL">in an editorial</a> about his now-resigned spokesman's secret tape recording of conversations with reporters. </p>

Jerry Brown’s Aide Quits Over Taped Calls

November 3, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

A spokesman for Attorney General Jerry Brown who admitted last week that he had secretly recorded telephone conversations with journalists, including a reporter for The Chronicle, resigned Monday. Scott Gerber was placed on administrative leave Friday after telling Chronicle political writer Carla Marinucci that he had recorded her interview Wednesday with two attorneys in Brown's office without seeking her permission.Gerber admitted taping the conversation with Marinucci after the newspaper published a story about consumer activist Harvey Rosenfield charged that Brown changed the wording of the summary of a proposed ballot measure on car insurance after pressure from Mercury General, one of the state's largest insurers and a Brown campaign donor.

Health-Care Insurance Cheaper In The Suburbs

November 2, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<strong>Firm's Data Show The Farther You live From Downtown Chicago, The Less Expensive Your Monthly Coverage.</strong><!-- Article's First Paragraph --> <p> Judy Dugan, research director for Consumer Watchdog, a Santa Monica-based public policy advocacy group, said that while she couldn't reach specific conclusions without the underlying data, the findings point out that today's individual-coverage insurance market "is the Wild West" partly because each person is buying customized coverage that is largely unregulated. Dugan speculated that many insurance companies don't want to do business in an urban area because "they like a mommy and a daddy and three healthy kids" as clients. "It's one reason we need health-care reform -- to get rid of this kind of weird disparity in pricing," Dugan said. </p>