Insurance

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  ·  Judy Dugan

<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  ·  Doug Heller

<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>

California Consumer Advocate Slams Brown Over Taping Of Phone Calls

November 1, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> <strong>Ties To Insurance Company Questioned</strong> </p> With the sudden announcement that San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom -- the rival to Attorney General Edmund G. "Jerry" Brown for the Democratic nomination for Governor of California in 2010 -- was dropping out of the race, things might seem pretty smooth for the former governor. But Santa Monica-based Consumer Watchdog is taking Brown to task for changing the language of a ballot initiative designed to protect consumers from auto insurance hikes, allegedly at the behest of campaign donor Mercury Insurance.

For Those Denied Insurance Because Of Pre-existing Conditions, Health Reform Would Bring Major Change

October 31, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

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AG’s office secretly taped conversation with reporter on Mercury initiative

October 31, 2009  ·  Harvey Rosenfield

I can't believe this! Two days ago, I told you about how Attorney General Jerry Brown rewrote the official summary of a ballot measure sponsored by Mercury Insurance Company to omit the fact that it will raise auto insurance premiums. This morning The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Brown's spokesman secretly taped a conversation with reporter Carla Marinucci in an effort to keep a story about Brown's action out of the newspaper.

Brown Under Fire For ‘Gift’ To Mercury Insurance

October 30, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> SACRAMENTO, CA — Attorney General Jerry Brown is facing accusations that he cleared the way for a ballot measure summary that was favorable to an insurance company that has contributed to his campaign coffers. "If it was an insurance company trying to get us to ask them to raise their rates, this is exactly what they'd want," said Harvey Rosenfield, founder of Santa Monica-based Consumer Watchdog and author of the 1988 voter-approved Proposition 103, the measure that restricts the insurance industry's ability to raise rates. "It's a massive gift to Mercury. The attorney general needs to explain why this changed and why it's no longer important to tell the public about the consequences of this initiative." Rosenfield has filed a Public Records Act request to gain access to all communications between the attorney general's office and Mercury. Meanwhile, the attorney general's office admitted that it recorded the conversations with journalists inquiring about the ballot measure issue.<br /> </p>