Insurance

Baucus At The Center Of Health Care Debate

May 19, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

Baucus may be too quick to compromise away the public part of that public-private combination. Insurance companies are already furiously lobbying against a so-called public option that would let people choose between private insurance and a publicly financed plan similar to Medicare. "The worry is that Mr. Baucus, who's taken huge amounts of money from the insurance companies and the drug companies, is going to do what they want him to do, which is to kill the public option," said Jerry Flanagan of the advocacy group Consumer Watchdog.

New Analysis By Our Legal Team On Tobacco II Case

May 19, 2009  ·  Pam Pressley

<p> The corporate attack on California consumer protection laws suffered a setback today. The California Supreme Court rejected the tobacco industry’s attempt to gut consumers’ ability to bring class actions under one of the...</p>

CA Supreme Court revives class action against tobacco companies

May 18, 2009  ·  Jamie Court

<p> Here's the latest from the Associated Press about a new California Supreme Court case allowing a false advertising case against the tobacco industry to proceed and clarifying guidelines for future cases. Consumer Watchdog filed <a href="http://www.ConsumerWatchdog.org/resources/TobaccoAmicus.pdf">a friend of the court brief</a> in the case.  </p>

Health reform crash and burn?

May 18, 2009  ·  Judy Dugan

<p> The Senate's version of health care reform is becoming a "cave-in" to the medical and insurance industries, writes Robert Reich in ...</p>

Insurers, Including AIG, Spent Nearly $36 Million to Influence Congress

May 16, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> Insurance companies, including American International Group (AIG), spent nearly $36 million in recent years on <a href="../../../insurance/articles/?storyId=27286">political contributions to members of Congress</a>, according to the Consumer Watchdog and the Center for Responsive Politics. Also among the big givers were Hartford Financial and Lincoln Financial, two companies that are <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-CreditCrisis/idUSTRE54E14B20090515">in line to get billions in TARP funds</a> from the U.S. Treasury. Consumer Watchdog says that insurers are hoping that Congress will support their effort to opt out of state regulation in favor of a federal regulator. </p>

Where Will The Money Come From? And Who Will Be Left Out Of Health Reform?

May 15, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

This week, <em>The Economist</em> <a href="http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13649042" target="_blank" rel="noopener">zoomed in on</a> an issue that the press has overlooked of late: the details of where the money will come from to pay for health reform. The House document <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090514/ap_on_go_co/us_health_overhaul" target="_blank" rel="noopener">released yesterday</a> calls for an “individual mandate”—a requirement that everyone must carry health insurance. If you don’t get it from your employer or if you don’t qualify for Medicaid, you will be required to buy a policy in the dreaded individual insurance market, where prices are high and insurer scrutiny of your health problems is intense. The mandate is sure to be controversial, and interest groups are already poised to fight it. “We know the mandate can be beat,” <a href="../../../../../../../patients/articles/?storyId=27270" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> Carmen Balber on the blog of Consumer Watchdog, a vocal consumer group that helped defeat an individual mandate in California a few years ago. “We were able to beat it because the numbers behind a mandate just don’t add up. You just can’t force people to buy something they can’t afford.”

DC Dispatch: Why won’t anyone question an insurance mandate?

May 15, 2009  ·  Carmen Balber

<p> I joined a group of reporters yesterday who'd spent hours waiting outside the Senate Finance Committee hearing room for the private meeting of that public body to conclude, and heard a lot of jokes about the fact that Senators Baucus and Grassley were probably going to come out and announce --- nothing. "Everything's on the table" has been their repeated mantra... </p>

State Farm To Cut Auto Rates

May 15, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

State Farm had to be prodded into reducing premiums as much as it did, said Douglas Heller, executive director of Consumer Watchdog, a Santa Monica group that advocates on behalf of policyholders on regulatory matters before the state Department of Insurance. State Farm last year originally asked Poizner to lower rates by about $88 million, Heller said. Consumer Watchdog argued that a $350-million reduction would be justified, and Poizner approved a cut of $219 million. "Even with this rate decrease," Heller said, "State Farm customers will be paying more than they should be for the auto coverage they are getting."

Seeking An Insurance Policy – On Regulation

May 15, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> "The federal government should oversee insurance," U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-PA) said yesterday as he convened another House hearing on how to regulate risk. But what if the new federal insurance watchdog set up rules and rates that were weaker than the protections some states now give consumers? That's what happened in the banking business, where credit card lenders used federal regulation to preempt consumer-protection laws in states such as Pennsylvania 30 years ago. Insurance activists like Douglas Heller of Consumer Watchdog worry that that'll happen in their industry, too. Kanjorski has attracted more campaign money from insurance people - a half-million dollars, by Heller's count - than any other House member in the last two election cycles. </p>

State Farm To Cut Car Insurance Rates For Calif.

May 15, 2009  ·  Consumer Watchdog

Doug Heller, the executive director of Consumer Watchdog, said State Farm proposed last year to lower auto insurance rates by 3.2 percent or about $88 million as required by state law. Heller said his Santa Monica-based group challenged the proposal, arguing the company was relying on one year's worth of data for determining its loss trends, which are used to predict future losses and to set the rate. Heller said insurance providers were previously required to consider three years' worth of data on losses, but Poizner loosened the rule last year.

Health care reform turning into bailout for health insurers

May 12, 2009  ·  Jamie Court

It's hard not to read the new <a href="http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/resources/HealthcareDescriptionPolicyOptions.pdf">US Senate Finance Committee paper</a> laying out policy options for health care reform as anything but a bailout of the HMO and insurance industry.

DC Dispatch: Congress health reform plan tilts to insurers

May 12, 2009  ·  Judy Dugan

<p> A Senate <a href="http://www.finance.senate.gov/sitepages/leg/LEG%202009/051109%20Health%20Care%20Description%20of%20Policy%20Options.pdf">health care reform "policy options"</a> document released last night gives us a good idea where national reform plans will go, and it offers some major causes for worry. It states without reservation that  every American must show proof of insurance coverage, with a few exceptions. And a strong "public option," like voluntary Medicare, is just one of several possibilities. Before we get to the laudable parts, Consumer Watchdog wants to state one thing clearly: If federal health reforms demand that Americans buy unregulated private insurance, and don't offer a public option of Medicare strength, it will be a criminal ripoff of families and taxpayers. </p>