Insurance

Coventry Health Care to Buy Florida Health Plan

July 9, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">Washington Post</p> <p>Coventry Health Care, a Bethesda-based managed-care provider, has agreed to acquire privately held Florida Health Plan Administrators for about $685 million in cash, according to a Coventry statement.</p>

L.A. County secrecy policy is assailed;

July 6, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<h3>Open-government supporters decry move to keep memos on settlements confidential.</h3><p class="source">Los Angeles Times</p> <p>"If this is private, we have no idea what kind of deals they're making on the taxpayer dime, whether or not they're legitimate or whether or not they're squeezing the weak or giving money to the powerful," said Doug Heller, executive director of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights. "Just because they may be the only ones who have been doing it right doesn't mean they should start doing it wrong."</p>

Schwarzenegger ‘blocked own green policy’

July 4, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">The Independent (London)</p> <p>Consumer groups and Democrat leaders have been quick to express their disappointment. "The Governor has made his name across the world as the jolly green governor, and now we have the regulators saying his inner circle has pressured them to go slow because the big industries don't want us to go too quickly," said Jamie Court, of the Foundation for Taxpayers and Consumer Rights.</p>

First, Dump Dunmoyer

July 3, 2007  ·  Judy Dugan

<font face="verdana,sans-serif" size="2">rnold may think that naming a veteran air quality official like Mary Nichols to head his Air Resources Board will quiet things down. But any new appointee is bound to fail unless the Gov first...</font>

Health insurer cited in policy cancellations;

July 3, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<h3>BC Life mishandled more than half the cases reviewed by the state. Critics say regulators have not done enough.</h3><p class="source">Los Angeles Times</p> <p>Others were critical of what they said was the report's focus on process rather than substance. "It is sort of like giving a bank robber a speeding ticket for driving too fast in the getaway car," said Jerry Flanagan, a patient advocate with the Foundation for Consumer and Taxpayer Rights. "The real question is, what will they do next and are they looking at the underlying crime as opposed to a misdemeanor?"</p>

4 Scientists Support Challenge to Wisconsin’s Stem-Cell Patents

July 2, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">Chronicle of Higher Education</p> <p>In papers filed on Friday, the scientists supported the groups' contention that the work by the Wisconsin scientist James A. Thomson in isolating and perpetuating human embryonic stem cells was not novel enough to deserve a patent. The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, in California, and the Public Patent Foundation, in New York City, said in their filings and in a news release issued on Monday that the work for which Mr. Thomson was awarded patents was "obvious."</p>

A CASE OF THE BLUES

July 1, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">The Scranton Times-Tribune (Pennsylvania)</p> <p>Consumer advocates, such as Mr. Flanagan with the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, agree with Dr. Kongstvedt on at least one point: Mergers can be highly profitable and successful. But Mr. Flanagan said the money generated goes back into the companies or into Wall Street investors' pockets. </p>

AUTO INSURANCE: Wave of high fees forecast;

June 29, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<h3>A court ruling lets stand added charges for those who pay in installments.</h3><p class="source">Los Angeles Times</p> <p>Harvey Rosenfield of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights in Santa Monica said, "I predict that we'll see abuse crop up everywhere." Rosenfield said he now was looking to California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner to use his regulatory powers to crack down on insurers, if he deems their installment payments excessively high.</p>

GMA GETS ANSWERS: MEDICAID AND HMOS; IS IT REALLY TREATMENT FOR NEEDY?

June 26, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">ABC-TV News - GOOD MORNING AMERICA</p> <p>JERRY FLANAGAN (FOUNDATION FOR TAXPAYER AND CONSUMER RIGHTS): The effect on patients has been having a harder time getting access to the care they need, waiting longer for doctors visits, and in some cases, services being cut altogether.</p>

Lawmakers’ driving claims cost California taxpayers

June 9, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">Associated Press</p> <p>"Particularly with lawmakers like Senator Migden, who has had several claims, I wonder if taxpayers should be picking up the cost. Lawmakers with poor driving records should be picking up the cost themselves," said Carmen Balber, a consumer advocate for the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, a consumer advocacy group in Santa Monica. "Taxpayers certainly shouldn't be paying for the poor driving habits of lawmakers."</p>

Six-Figure Donors Have Arnold’s Ear

June 8, 2007  ·  Carmen Balber

<font face="verdana,sans-serif" size="2">Arnold held a <a href="http://www.consumerwatchdog.orgpoliticians/corporate/nw/?%20postId=7545">cocktail and dinner reception</a> at his Brentwood estate on Wednesday for his top donors, all of...</font>

Let voters reform health care

June 8, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE (California)</p> <p>So would a ballot initiative work? It wouldn't be easy. "Insurers would spend hundreds of millions of dollars to defeat it," observed Jerry Flanagan, health care policy director at the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, a Southern California consumer advocacy group. "They'd attempt to focus people on tax increases and drown out that this would be far less than what people now pay in premiums and deductibles," he said.</p>