Health insurer rescinds policy because of chronic gravititis
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Is evil a pre-existing condition?
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Insurance
Insurance news, investigations, and reform — auto, home, and health insurance rates, claims denials, and industry accountability.
Mandating Health Insurance Purchase is Not Reform
“Requiring Americans to buy insurance coverage from insurers who face
no legal accountability will only lock them into the same problems
plaguing consumers today,” Consumer Watchdog protested in a letter it
recently sent to key members of Congress. Amen to that. According to the California-based non-profit
organization, health insurers routinely stick it those who pay for
their products in a variety of ways...
“Health insurance mafia” — Or is it pirates?
Blogger and multimedia guy Bob Cesca doesn't pull his punches when he
talks about how much he hates health insurance companies, especially
the one that rhymes with "Screw Costs." If you like his story (below), you'll love this goofy Austin Lounge Lizards cartoon and song about health
insurance pirates, titled <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bk23AtoTzMM&feature=channel_page">"Go Ahead and Die."</a> It's a couple of years old, yet totally current.
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‘Blue Dogs’ stand in circle, pull ‘trigger’ over health care option
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The 50 or so moderate/conservative House Democrats called Blue Dogs <a href="http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/patients/articles/?storyId=27780&topicId=9882">announced last week </a>that
they all support the health insurance industry's proposal to
essentially kill any option to private health insurance. The Blue Dog
"plan" was little more a cut-and-paste of insurance industry desires.
But the <a href="http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/patients/articles/?storyId=27829&topicId=9882">backlash was fast</a>, and not-so-united Blue Dogs started backing way, way off from the group's position.
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Google Receives Federal Request For Book Settlement Info
The U.S. Justice Department is reportedly investigating Google's
digital books settlement with publishers, which Google claims will make
millions of volumes accessible to all but which has critics crying
antitrust issues. Google's books project has run into opposition from a
number of groups, including Consumer Watchdog, arguing that it gives the search engine company too
much control over content with little oversight.
Private Insurance Companies Push For ‘Individual Mandate’
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In a recent letter to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus
(D-Mont.), Jerry Flanagan of the Santa Monica-based
advocacy group Consumer Watchdog wrote that adopting an individual
mandate without a public alternative would amount to "a bailout for
HMOs -- whose greed, waste and indifference to our health have created
the current mess."<br />
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TOSback: Keeping tabs on the Web’s fine print
Among the most frustrating things about online services and Internet companies are the "terms of service" policies governing how the businessses interact with you and use your personal information.<br/>
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Internet companies claim...
Insurer pals in Congress “cut and paste” industry demands
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I'd rather trust Grandma's pearls to a guy with a mask and a crowbar
than let insurance companies control national health reform. In Friday's
New York Times, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/05/opinion/05krugman.html?_r=1">columnist Paul Krugman</a>
distills the case against these bandits. But conservative Democrats are
still acting like health insurers are the solution, not the problem. And
they're so lazy they can't even write their own ultimatums.
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Fighting Healthcare Rescissions
<strong>A just-passed bill in Sacramento, and a proposal by California's insurance commissioner, would help end abuses by insurers.</strong><br />
One advocacy group, Consumer Watchdog of Santa Monica, estimates that
up to 30% of the people who apply for individual policies get
rejected. Cracking down on bad-faith rescissions will help some people
maintain their insurance, but others may just find out sooner that they
can't get coverage for the illnesses for which they're most at risk, if
they can get coverage at all.
Poizner Takes Action Against Arbitrary Health Insurance Cuts – Says Unfair Rescissions Must Stop
"The rules proposed by the Department of Insurance go a long way to
protect innocent patients from losing their coverage when they are sick
and need it most," says Jerry Flanagan of Consumer Watchdog. "The
Schwarzenegger Administration must also follow through with its planned
rules applying to HMOs and PPOs, which are separately overseen by the
Department of Managed Health Care. Without such rules, health insurers
will be able to discriminate against patients on the basis of which
agency regulates their insurer.”
Personal responsibility for health insurance but no legal accountability for insurers?
If Americans are going to be personally responsible for purchasing a
health insurance policy, what will Congress do to make health insurers
legally responsible for how they process claims.
Remarkably, all the Congressional outlines of reform legislation leave
out the HMO patients' bill of rights measures the same Democrats
championed 10 years ago but never succeeded in passing.
Regulation May Bar Insurers From Dropping Policies
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Proposed state regulations announced Wednesday call on health insurers to provide clearer applications and proactively collect medical information before granting policies. However, the new policies would not affect the 22 million managed-health care
policies — typically obtained through employers — that are regulated by
the Department of Managed Health Care, said Jerry Flanagan, health
advocate for Consumer Watchdog, a Santa Monica-based consumer advocacy
group. "The problem is if the Department of Managed Health Care doesn't act,
then the insurers can discriminate based on what regulates their
policy," Flanagan said.
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