Insurance

Little angst at the gas pump;

April 16, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<h3>Poll shows most resigned to prices climbing</h3><p class="source">The Stockton Record</p> <p>Judy Dugan of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights wants California lawmakers to regulate refinery production and gasoline supplies in storage, which she says would smooth out price spikes. "Oil companies built this system to keep supplies tight," Dugan said. "They know they will reap ever-higher overall profits without having to make or sell more gasoline. With only a handful of companies making most of the refined gasoline in California, they don't compete, they cooperate. The usual laws of supply and demand are broken."</p>

Redlining’s end a pinch for some

April 15, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">Los Angeles Daily News</p> <p>There's a provision of Prop. 103 that's responsible for a serious change in insurance pricing that's already being felt by California consumers. Doug Heller of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, whose founder, Harvey Rosenfeld, wrote Prop. 103, explained that last year former Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi issued a regulation forcing auto insurers to stop jacking up rates in certain neighborhoods -- redlining -- and base rates only on driving records.</p>

INSURANCE PROGRAM SPINNING ITS WHEELS;

April 14, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<h3>Autos: The Low-cost Option Finds Few Takers. Some Blame Marketing</h3><p class="source">The Press Enterprise (Riverside, CA)</p> <p>Doug Heller, executive director of the Los Angeles-based Foundation for Consumer and Taxpayer Rights, the group that sponsored the bill creating the program, said he is disappointed that the insurance has not been more popular. Heller complained that the assigned risk plan, which administers the program, and insurance agents should be doing more to market the low-cost coverage.</p>

Health-care insurance rules altered

April 13, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">State House News Service</p> <p>The California-based health-care advocacy group Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights condemned the state's approval of high-deductible health plans, claiming they will prevent people from seeking proper health care. "Massachusetts has moved away from the promise of 'universal' health coverage at every step as it implements its insurance mandate, and now turns a blind eye to costs that will stop even the 'insured' from getting needed care."</p>

Controls urged for medical insurers;

April 12, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<h3>Some lawmakers and consumer advocates are supporting a new effort to regulate insurance rates in California.</h3><p class="source">Los Angeles Times</p> <p>The foundation (FTCR), one of the backers of Jones' bill, also said that since 2002, four insurers -- Blue Cross of California, PacifiCare, Health Net and Aetna -- have sent $3.2 billion of California premiums to their national parent companies as profit. Jerry Flanagan, an advocate at the foundation, said that California's success in regulating auto rates through Proposition 103 in 1988 showed that such oversight saves money. Between 1989 and 2003, auto premiums dropped 7% in California while premiums in the rest of the country increased 47%, he said.</p>

Lawmaker: Regulate health costs;

April 12, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<h3>PROPOSAL TO HAVE STATE SET RATES FACES TOUGH GOING</h3><p class="source">The San Jose Mercury News (California)</p> <p>Jerry Flanagan, the health care policy director for the consumers and taxpayers group, said that Jones' bill would give regulators more power to scrutinize how insurers are spending premium dollars, and decide whether rate increases are justified. He said the consolidation of the health insurance market in California -- recent corporate mergers have left five companies in control of 80 percent of the health-maintenance organization market -- demands a bigger role for government.</p>

Cell phone donations challenged

April 11, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">UPI - United Press International</p> <p>The wireless industry is making money from a program that lets cell phone users donate to the American Red Cross. The Text 2Help program is a business strategy masquerading as a charity, the Foundations for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights claimed.</p>

Union Disunity;

April 11, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<h3>The secret deal worked out between SEIU bosses and nursing home owners denies union members the right to speak out strike, or protect patients</h3><p class="source">San Francisco Weekly (California)</p>

Group Questions Cellphone Fund-Raising

April 11, 2007  ·  Jamie Court

<p class="source">The New York Times</p> <p>''The wireless industry has made a very direct appeal here to the hearts of Americans to use these short codes to make charitable donations, but people don't realize that every short code comes with a bill,'' Jamie Court, president of the group, the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, said about the five-digit codes used to send text messages.</p>

Mass. Would Junk Quality, Affordability Promises of Health Insurance Mandate

April 8, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">Health Insurance Law Weekly</p> <p>"We can only imagine that the Board is considering an HDHP exemption in response to criticism that health plans recently approved by the Connector are still unaffordable for many," wrote Carmen Balber, consumer advocate with the nonprofit, nonpartisan Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR), in a letter to the board implementing the Massachusetts law.</p>

PTO Agrees To Re-Examine WARF Claims In Stem Cells

April 4, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">BIOWORLD Today</p> <p>Dated March 30, the PTO's preliminary decision became known Tuesday. WARF has two months to appeal the finding that favors the arguments of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, California's main watchdog organization, which filed opposing paperwork last July. The Public Patent Foundation, a not-for-profit legal services outfit, joined the FTCR in the effort.</p>

INSURERS’ DENIALS HITTING CHILDREN;

April 3, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<h3>MODESTO MAN'S REQUEST FOR COVERAGE FOR HIS SON REJECTED FOR 1 EAR INFECTION</h3><p class="source">Modesto Bee</p> <p>Jamie Court, president of the Foundation for Taxpayer & Consumer Rights, a Santa Monica-based consumer group, said insurers are known to deny coverage for adults and children for about any condition. The foundation obtained internal underwriting guidelines from four major insurers and made them public in January.</p>