Insurance

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>

Mercury Insurance Legislation Seeks to Allow Higher Auto Insurance Prices, Deceptive Advertising

April 3, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<h3>SB 975 (Calderon) and Krumme v. Mercury </h3> <p>This memo explains the history of Mercury Insurance's illegal broker fees and the effort to protect them in 2007 with SB 975.</p>

Good news for state’s stem-cell research institute

April 3, 2007  ·  John M. Simpson

<p class="source">San Jose Mercury News (California)</p> <p>The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has rejected three University of Wisconsin patents for human embryonic stem cells, which consumer advocates had claimed might hamper stem-cell research in California. The federal agency's ruling was received Monday by two consumer groups that challenged the patents, the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights and the Public Patent Foundation.</p>

Patents for human stem cells invalidated;

April 3, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<h3>The protections were blamed for slowing medical research.</h3><p class="source">Los Angeles Times</p> <p>The office ruled the discovery of embryonic stem cells from primates -- including humans -- was not worthy of patent protection because scientists had used similar methods to isolate embryonic stem cells from mice and other mammals, and described the cells' potential for producing medical therapies. "They rejected every one of the claims," said John Simpson, stem cell project director at the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights in Santa Monica, one of the public interest groups that brought the challenge last year.</p>

Key stem cell patents revoked

April 3, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">New Scientist Magazine</p> <p>The examiners said the Wisconsin cells -- based on the work of James Thomson at the University of Wisconsin-Madison -- appeared to be either the same or obvious variations of cells described in previous patents issued to others or published in scientific papers. The decision came as the result of a challenge filed in July 2006 by the US Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR) and the Public Patent Foundation.</p>

Patents on stem cells limited;

April 3, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<h3>California nonprofit groups had argued research foundation claimed too much credit for process.</h3><p class="source">Sacramento Bee (California)</p> <p>"What this means for researchers in California and elsewhere is that they don't have to put up the mortgage to conduct their research," said Jamie Court, president of the Santa Monica-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, one of the nonprofit groups in the middle of the patent fight. "It's a great day for science."</p>

3 Patents on Stem Cells Are Revoked in Initial Review

April 3, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">The New York Times</p> <p>The Public Patent Foundation, which seeks to overturn patents it believes are not in the public interest, sought the re-examination last July. It acted with the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, a California consumer group that said the patents could impede that state's $3 billion stem cell research program.</p>

Patent office throws out key stem cell patents

April 2, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">San Francisco Business Times</p> <p>The two groups challenging the patents argued that the work done by University of Wisconsin researcher James Thomson to isolate stem cell lines was obvious in the light of previous scientific research, making his work unpatentable. To receive a patent, something must be new, useful and non-obvious. The Patent and Trademark office agreed with the groups in a decision issued March 30, but received today.</p>

Taking the initiative on curbing health cost

March 30, 2007  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">Los Angeles Times</p> <p>Now, the Foundation for Taxpayer & Consumer Rights is determined to force health insurance companies to take similar steps every time they want to boost premiums. This will be especially crucial if, as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed, all Californians are mandated to purchase medical coverage. "We see this as the Proposition 103 for healthcare," says Jamie Court, president of the foundation, which has been quietly drafting an initiative that it aims to place on the February 2008 ballot.</p>