Mercury Insurance takes aim at California drivers
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In the worst economy in generations, California's 3rd largest auto insurer
hopes to fool voters into allowing higher auto premiums.
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Insurance
Insurance news, investigations, and reform — auto, home, and health insurance rates, claims denials, and industry accountability.
Healthcare Reform Doesn’t Hinge On Public Insurance Plan
"The public plan was the last hope for keeping private insurers
honest," said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog in Santa
Monica. "If I was the White House, I would hope that healthcare reform
doesn't pass right now, because it's going to be a disaster." I can relate to his frustration. I too think that something like a
Medicare-for-all program is the most sensible solution for the
country's healthcare woes. It may not be a perfect system, but it would
be fairer and more effective than what we have now.
Google seeks spinmeisters
Internet giant <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/corporate/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Google</a> is seeking communications personnel to get its story out to the world and counter what it calls negative press.<br/>
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According to an ...
Calif. Auto Initiative Funded by Insurer, Called ‘Class Warfare’ by Foe
LOS ANGELES, CA -- A California ballot measure underwritten by Mercury General Corp. would allow insurers to raise or lower automobile insurance premiums based on a driver's coverage history, including the ability to raise rates based on the absence of prior coverage. In practice, Consumer Watchdog claims, consumers who decide not to
drive and let their insurance lapse would be penalized against, as
would one who files one late payment. The initiative would allow
insurers latitude to raise rates after a policyholder files a claim,
even when the policyholder is not at fault; this would create a
"perverse incentive" to not file claims or report accidents, it said. "Mercury is using the initiative process to go after middle class
Californians by allowing insurance companies to raise rates on
struggling families in the middle of an economic crisis," Consumer
Watchdog Executive Director Doug Heller said in a statement.
Consumer Group Criticizes Co-Op Proposal
Consumer Watchdog today issued a press release criticising Senator Kent Conrad's (D-ND) health insurance cooperative proposal. The consumer group claims that the co-op model is a failed one, largely
because co-operatives have failed to generate enough membership in
order to negotiate the best rates. In addition, the consumer advocacy
group claims that co-ops could be used to reduce the effectiveness of
state consumer laws.
Amid Health Debate, Cash Flows To Lawmakers
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WASHINGTON, D.C. -- On a recent Wednesday morning, 1,000 insurance brokers spread out across Capitol Hill with a singular mission: kill a proposed government-run health care plan. Insurers support a proposed mandate that all Americans carry insurance.
But they do not think they should have to compete with the government. "They want to turn the national desperation for affordable health care
into a bill that really boosts their profits," said Jerry Flanagan,
health care analyst with Consumer Watchdog, a California advocacy
group. "They are getting Congress to do their dirty work."
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‘Deeply misleading’ polls on health insurance are fuel for the fear-and-anger campaign
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"Liking" your health insurance policy is roughly the same as liking
Bernie Madoff until you tried to withdraw your retirement savings.
That's what's wrong with the polls that health corporations and Fox
News are using to generate powerful fear and anger over health
insurance reform. Any kind of insurance is fine until you have to make
a major claim.
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What’s really driving health reform protests?
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The light bulb went off in my head today reading NY Times columnist <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/07/opinion/07krugman.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntemail1=y">Paul Krugman's description </a>of
health reform protests--are these folks actually clamoring to give up their
Medicare? If not, the boiling anger is about something else. And guess
which industry is driving the fury.
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Co-op In Spotlight For Insurance Plan
<p>
<strong>United Agricultural Benefit Trust Spotlighted As Model For Healthcare Cooperatives</strong>
</p>
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Private insurers can screen out people more at risk
for serious illness, hedging against the danger of expensive and
frequent medical bills, said Jamie Court, president of Consumer
Watchdog, a Santa Monica group that monitors insurance practices. The
fear is that co-ops will attract high-risk people who would otherwise
go uncovered, which could bleed a co-op's funding dry, he said. Court
also maintains that the co-ops' small size would work against them if
operating on a scale as large as Sen. Conrad's proposal. "Co-ops are
simply too small to have any real bargaining power," he said.
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Health insurance competition: One of their bigger lies
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When health insurance companies or their Congressional sock puppets
tell you that competition in the private market will reform health care
and cut costs, run for the hills. It's a flat-out lie, and their
lobbyists' noses are getting...</p>
Health insurers aren’t the victims, but the victimizers
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The head of the health insurance lobby, Karen Ignani, is <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/05/health/policy/05insure.html?_r=1&hpw">crying foul</a> about being demonized by Democrats trying to complete health insurance reform. Let's not forget what health insurers have done to demonize themselves!
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Our Opinion: Follow The Money Trail
If those congressmen who have received money from the health care
industry recused themselves from the debate, you could almost hear a
pin drop in chambers. Sen. John McCain, according to consumerwatchdog.org, has
received nearly $320,000 from the health insurance industry. The
Republican senator from Arizona ranked first among his Senate
colleagues in a list compiled by Consumer Watchdog, a national consumer
group that monitors the ties between lawmakers and lobbyists. McCain
also received nearly as much, $312,000, according to a July 12 report,
from the pharmaceutical industry.