Insurance

What’s the corporate side of this kinky sex scandal?

September 9, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

The sex scandal du jour--California state Senator Mike Duvall, a "family-values conservative," <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Idw-CzHwgc&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Ftpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com%2F2009%2F09%2Fgop_lawmakers_graphic_sex-bragging_caught_on_tape.php&feature=player_embedded">boasting into an open mike</a> during a hearing about his spanking, stamina and other exploits with two female lobbyists--ought to broaden focus. Duvall is <a href="http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/09/gop_lawmakers_graphic_sex-bragging_caught_on_tape.php">political toast</a>--apologized, resigned. But what about Sempra Energy, the employer of the one lobbyist who's been identified? What did the company know, and what exactly is it expecting of its lobbyists?

Our response to CBS Outdoors

September 9, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

Consumer Watchdog today demanded that CBS Outdoors restore our "Don't Trust Mercury Insurance" billboard, pulled down, mid-contract, at Mercury Insurance's request.

Baucus Offers His Plan For Healthcare Overhaul

September 9, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> <strong>The Senate finance panel chief would create cooperatives as an alternative to the public option.</strong><br /> </p> <p> A leading consumer group also took aim at the Baucus proposal, criticizing a provision that could allow insurers more flexibility to sell plans across state lines. "This is a huge loophole that the insurance industry has been seeking for decades," said Jerry Flanagan, healthcare policy director of Santa Monica-based Consumer Watchdog. </p>

Consumer Group Accuses Wellpoint and UnitedHealth Group of ‘Illegal Coercion’

September 9, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

SANTA MONICA, CA -- Nonprofit consumer advocacy organization, Consumer Watchdog, has written California Attorney General Jerry Brown to request an investigation into certain actions by two health care providers, which the group accuses of "illegal coercion under the California Labor Code."<br />

It’s Funny What Passes For Offensive These Days

September 9, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<strong>A billboard critical of Mercury Insurance is taken down after the firm complains. But a vodka ad suggestive of part of the female anatomy is still eliciting gasps.</strong>

Congressional Hearing To Focus On Google Book Search

September 9, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

The Google Book Search Settlement has taken yet another twist: in a last minute announcement, the House Judiciary Committee today posted notice that it would hold a hearing on “The Competition and Commerce in Digital Books” or, in other words, the Google Books Search Settlement, on Thursday, September 10th at 10am. With the hearing, the Google Book Search settlement has now hit the trifecta—all three branches of government are involved: the Judiciary is overseeing the settlement; the Executive, via the Department of Justice, is looking at antitrust issues; and now Congress, which brings the widest possible government scope from which to address potential issues with book digitization.

A ‘framework’ made in health insurer’s workshop

September 9, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> The latest proposal in the Washington health reform debate protects employers from costs, delivers millions of new customers to the insurance industry and protects it from competition. Overall medical cost reduction is vague. And the middle class, the group with no free-spending Washington lobby, gets the lump of coal--less help with premiums and higher out of pocket costs than in other proposals. </p>

CA Investigates Kaiser, Anthem, Insurers

September 8, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="summary"> Judy Dugan of the Santa Monica-based advocacy group Consumer Watchdog said one of the primary reasons for the HMO system's dysfunction is its for-profit emphasis that puts patient care on the back burner.  "They (HMOs) seem to be happy to take care of slightly healthy people, but their dollar alert goes up when it's expensive," Dugan said. "They don't have any huge interest in figuring out what effective care is and isn't and sometimes it seems random when they deny something as not medically necessary." </p>

Uncertain Future For Low-Cost Auto Insurance Program

September 8, 2009  ·  Doug Heller

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is considering whether to extend the state’s low-cost auto insurance program, which offers bare-bones coverage to motorists who would otherwise drive without insurance — and break the law.  “It’s very important that this program be extended,” said Doug Heller, executive director of Consumer Watchdog, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that tracks insurance issues. “The last thing we want is for people to be uninsured.” The program will expire at the end of 2010 unless it is extended by lawmakers.

Obama needs to become our whistleblower-in-chief

September 8, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> Wednesday's presidential address to Congress is the moment for President Obama to prove he is a real outsider, and the fate of genuine health care reform depends upon it. The President promised the public during the campaign he would be a Washington whistleblower. Obama said he would haul drug company executives before him on C-SPAN and demand greater savings. He said he opposed mandatory health insurance because Americans would buy insurance if they could afford it. He campaigned as a populist, not a beholden politician. </p>

Consumer Watchdog Sends Letter To CA Attorney General Asking For Investigation Into Health Insurers

September 4, 2009  ·  Jamie Court

Consumer Watchdog sent a letter to California Attorney General Jerry Brown asking his office to investigate United Health Care and another insurer, WellPoint, for allegedly violating California's Labor Code by pressuring employees to lobby against reform. The letter says in part, "While coercive communications with employees may be legal, if abhorrent, in most states, California's Labor Code appears to directly prohibit them."

Billboard Blasting Mercury Insurance Is Removed

September 4, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

LOS ANGELES, CA -- California-based Consumer Watchdog, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization, said Mercury Insurance has threatened to sue the owners of a billboard the group used to display a statement that reads, "Consumer Watchdog says: You can't trust Mercury Insurance."