Insurance

Portland praised for curbing business clout

October 16, 2003  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<h3>A consumer foundation gives the city good marks for limiting the intrusion of corporations in public life</h3><p class="source">The Oregonian</p> <p>Foundation Executive Director Jamie Court said the report grew out of the foundation's work, which has included lobbying for the regulation of insurance rates and health maintenance organizations and against electricity deregulation.</p>

Groups Sue to Block Insurance Law, Contend Davis Is Biased

October 16, 2003  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<h3>Activists Say Act Creates Illegal Surcharges</h3><p class="source">The Los Angeles Daily Journal</p> <p>"This is the type of behavior that angered voters and why Davis was recalled," Harvey Rosenfield of FTCR, said before a Wednesday hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court. "Now we are trying to recall this law."</p>

Car Insurance Suit

October 16, 2003  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">City News Service</p> <p>Senate Bill 841, written at the behest of Mercury Insurance Co., also authorizes insurance companies to impose a surcharge on motorists applying for coverage for the first time, according to the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights.</p>

Consumer advocates challenge new auto insurance discount law

October 15, 2003  ·  Doug Heller

<p class="source">Associated Press</p> <p>"Proposition 103 says very explicitly that insurance companies cannot use the question of whether a driver has previously had auto insurance against them," Doug Heller, senior consumer advocate for FTCR, said Wednesday.</p>

Health insurance bill’s passage could spur rate cap proposal

October 13, 2003  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">Los Angeles Business Journal</p> <p>Following enactment of SB 2, the state's landmark play-or-pay health insurance law, the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights is considering an initiative that would subject California HMOs to the tightest rate regulations in the nation.</p>

Health care law may go to voters

October 11, 2003  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<h3>CHAMBER OF COMMERCE WANTS TO REPEAL MANDATE</h3><p class="source">San Jose Mercury News</p> <p>Jerry Flanagan, a consumer advocate with the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, called on the chamber "to stop fighting a bill" that Californians want and need.</p>

Groping in the dark in sunny California

October 10, 2003  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio)</p> <p>"From the California perspective, people had lost any capacity to do the tailwork. Unless Schwarzenegger had been groping Ken Lay in that hotel room, there wasn't going to be much interest," said Doug Heller with FTCR.</p>

TURN director leaves for new post

October 9, 2003  ·  Harvey Rosenfield

<p class="source">Contra Costa Times (California)</p> <p>Nettie Hoge, consumer advocate who fought for the rights of ratepayers during California's energy "crisis", announced that she is resigning as executive director of TURN and will become deputy commissioner at the California Dept. of Insurance.</p>

Speaker blames drug companies;

October 9, 2003  ·  Jamie Court

<h3>Says consumers need to 'fight back'</h3><p class="source">Orange County Register (California)</p> <p>In a Sept. 17 address to a People for a National Health Program, keynote speaker Jamie Court claimed that the most profitable industry in the nation is the pharmaceutical industry "at a time when many consumers are unable to afford its products."</p>

Business group seeks referendum on bill mandating health coverage

October 9, 2003  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">Associated Press</p> <p>"Clearly, Californians need and want health care, and the chamber should accept that and join with us to make it more affordable by supporting cost controls such as insurance rate regulation, hospital and physician rate caps," Jerry Flanagan of FTCR.</p>

Cingular Wireless in Cal. faces a class action consumer lawsuit

October 7, 2003  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">Communications Daily</p> <p>Cingular Wireless in Cal. faces a class action consumer lawsuit alleging unlawful business tactics even as it said it would appeal a Cal. PUC decision to fine it for the same alleged practices.</p>

Beware of dog when seeking insurance;

October 7, 2003  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<h3>Some firms have 'bad breed' lists</h3><p class="source">Philadelphia Daily News</p> <p>Doug Heller, of FTCR, said insurance companies appear to have gotten more discriminating in the past year and a half. He calls breed exclusion a case of "laziness and greed", and argues that insuring dog owners should be done on a case-by-case basis.</p>