Insurance

Insurer pals in Congress “cut and paste” industry demands

June 5, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> 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. </p>

Fighting Healthcare Rescissions

June 5, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<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

June 5, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

"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?

June 4, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

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

June 4, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> 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. </p>

Health Care Ruling Raises Questions for Other Cases

June 3, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

California's health insurance industry claimed victory and vindication last week when Blue Shield of California won the first ever jury trial in a health insurance rescission lawsuit, brought by an injured policyholder and his wife. Some health care advocates saw the Hailey verdict as a good sign for future lawsuits. "Blue Shield lost by winning here," said Jerry Flanagan, health advocate for the Santa Monica-based Consumer Watchdog. "Blue Shield said all along that the standard is too high, we can't meet it--and then they did it here."

Google’s Former Policy Exec Faces Objections To Appointment As Deputy CTO

June 3, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<strong>Two consumer groups object to Andrew McLaughlin's potential appointment, saying it would violate President Obama's ethics guidelines.</strong><br /> <br /> Andrew McLaughlin is slated to become the new deputy CTO, under federal CTO Aneesh Chopra, according to a New York Times report citing two unnamed sources. Google has acknowledged McLaughlin's departure, but not his destination. The White House has not yet announced plans to appoint McLaughlin. Nonetheless, the Center for Digital Democracy and Consumer Watchdog on Wednesday asked President Obama in a letter not to complete the rumored pending appointment because doing so would violate the President's ethics guidelines.

Veto The Anti-Consumer Property Insurance Bill

June 3, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

Gov. Crist has already indicated some reservations about signing this bill. We implore him to continue that smart thinking and to continue looking out for the best interests of Florida's insurance consumers. Consumer advocates across the state are expressing similar concerns, including the Florida Public Interest Research Group, the Consumer Federation of the Southeast, the Florida Consumer Action Network, Consumer Watchdog, the Center for Economic Justice, United Policyholders, Insured's Public Action Coalition, Floridians In Action as well as Florida's Insurance Consumer Advocate Sean Shaw.

Proposal Would Combat Rescissions of Health Insurance Policies In California

June 3, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> Steve Poizner, the state insurance chief, plans to unveil rules today that would deter insurers from dropping policyholders who develop costly ailments. Consumer advocates said they planned to keep the pressure on Poizner, a Republican who is running for governor. "The test for Poizner is not introducing a strong regulation but finishing the process and standing up to the insurance companies," said Jerry Flanagan, an advocate with Consumer Watchdog. "The public will be watching to see if Poizner sticks to his guns." </p>

Single-Payer Health Care Supporters Plea for Consideration from Baucus

June 2, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<strong>Whitefish Forum Discusses Reform with Senator’s Staff</strong><br /> <br /> Some in the audience also questioned whether the amount of campaign contributions Baucus has received from the insurance industry plays any role in the senator’s reluctance to consider a single payer system. Baucus is the third highest recipient of contributions from the insurance industry in the Senate, according to a study by the group Consumer Watchdog.

WellPoint Goes On The Offensive

May 31, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> Industry critics, however, see the report as yet another example of public-relations spin by Big Insurance designed to squash the public-plan option. "They'll lose dollars and people if the public-plan option that the president wants becomes a reality," said Jerry Flanagan, health-care policy director with Consumer Watchdog, a California-based advocacy group. "The general public doesn't put much credence into a poll like this." Over the past five years, WellPoint has made profit of $12.4 billion on revenue of about $245.4 billion -- a margin of about 5 percent, according to company filings. Flanagan said Americans allowed to enroll in a competing public plan would benefit from Medicare's low administrative expenses of about 3 percent.<br /> </p>

Google Updates PageRank, Rolls Out Web Elements

May 28, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> However, Google has also run into some high-profile controversies over the past few months. In April, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization Consumer Watchdog publicly questioned the settlement between Google, The Author’s Guild and the Association of American Publishers (AAP) over the search-engine giant's growing digital library. In particular, Consumer Watchdog argued that the settlement, which gave Google the same terms as any theoretical future competitor, deserved to be placed under government review. </p>