Insurance

What an unbelievable year!

December 26, 2012 · Jamie Court

<a href="http://issuu.com/news_review/docs/snr_cwd_121312.pdf?viewMode=magazine&mode=embed"><img class=" alignright size-full wp-image-2559" alt="" src="https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/images_nr_cover_v3.jpg" style="float: right; margin-left: 4px; margin-right: 4px; width: 203px; height: 234px;" width="300" height="345" /></a>Can you remember another year when consumers' voices have been heard so loudly?

A Letter Can Change An Industry

December 17, 2012 · Jamie Court

<a href="http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/case/hyundai-false-advertising-miles-gallon-mpg"><img class=" alignright size-full wp-image-2554" alt="" height="91" src="https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/images_hyundai-40mpg-cars.jpg" style="float: right;" width="295" /></a>If you doubt that writing Washington can make a difference, look at the letter we wrote to the Environmental Protection Agency one year ago. We asked that it audit Hyundai’s self-tested “Miles Per Gallon” claims.

Ford’s Fusion and C-Max “47 MPG” Claims Under Scrutiny

December 13, 2012 · Consumer Watchdog

<a href="http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/get-involved/complaints"><img class=" alignright size-full wp-image-2552" alt="" src="https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/images_ford.png" style="width: 299px; height: 199px; float: right;" width="900" height="598" /></a>If your 2013 Ford Fusion Hybrid or C-Max Hybrid is not getting gas mileage anywhere near Ford’s advertised 47 MPG, you probably are not alone. <a href="http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/get-involved/complaints">And Consumer Watchdog would like to hear from you.ââ‚¬Â¨ </a>

Go To The Mattresses

December 11, 2012 · Jamie Court

<a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/masters-of-disaster-christopher-lehane/1111306063?ean=9780230341807"><img class=" alignright size-full wp-image-2546" alt="" src="https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/images_lehane9780230341807_big.jpg" style="width: 200px; height: 304px; float: right; border-width: 1px; border-style: solid;" width="789" height="1200" /></a>If you're a fan of the Godfather, you have to love any book that says all you have to know about managing a crisis you already learned from Vito Corleone.

Health Law Doesn’t Protect Californians From Rate Increases

December 7, 2012 · Carmen Balber

<img class=" alignright size-full wp-image-2544" alt="" src="https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/images_money1.jpg" style="width: 250px; height: 167px; float: right; margin-left: 7px; margin-right: 7px;" width="1024" height="683" />Reporters largely missed the point of a <a href="http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/newsrelease/new-study-finds-rate-regulation-needed-make-health-insurers-pass-consumers-administrativ">Commonwealth Fund study released this week</a>, that looked at consumer savings under Obamacare's 80-20 rule, the rule making insurance companies spend at least 80% of your premiums on health care, not overhead.

Calif. Stem Cell Program Rife With Conflicts: NAS Report

December 6, 2012 · Mark Reback

Agency should split operations from policy, add more oversight committee members without conflicts California's $3 billion stem cell agency should reduce its built-in conflicts of interests or risk losing effectiveness, according to <a href="http://www.iom.edu/Reports/2012/The-California-Institute-for-Regenerative-Medicine-Science-Governance-and-the-Pursuit-of-Cures.aspx">a report released today</a> from the prestigious <a href="http://www.nasonline.org/">National Academy of Sciences</a>.

Consumer Watchdog Campaign Consumer Alert: Help Us Stop Unjust Health Insurer Rate Hikes!!

December 5, 2012 · Jamie Court

Health insurance companies are raising rates by double digits AGAIN. The difference this time is that we can make them pay us back with a refund! <a href="https://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/6563/p/salsa/donation/common/public/?donate_page_KEY=7519">Please watch this one minute video and join us in getting a refund of our excessive premium dollars</a>. <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/bxhSEdLyUR4?rel=0" width="480"></iframe>

Health Insurance Rates Could Shoot Up

November 29, 2012 · Consumer Watchdog

California health insurers are proposing double-digit rate increases for hundreds of thousands of policyholders, drawing criticism that health insurers are padding their profits as the nation prepares to carry out the federal health care law. Anthem Blue Cross, the state's largest for-profit health insurer, wants to raise rates an average of 17.5 percent for 744,000 members in February, with some Anthem policyholders seeing increases as high as 25 percent.

Anthem Blue Cross Seeks To Raise Individual Policyholders’ Rates

November 28, 2012 · Consumer Watchdog

California's largest for-profit health insurer proposes an average rate hike of 18%, but some Anthem customers may see increase of as much as 25% in February.

Wealth As A Lever For Social Change

November 19, 2012 · Consumer Watchdog

Tom Steyer wore the same plaid wool tie that he wore the last time, and the time before that, and the time before that. "It's superstition," he said, in his office at One Maritime Plaza, which has a billion-dollar view of Coit Tower and San Francisco Bay. As he often does, he used a pen that morning to draw a simple cross on his wrist, with smaller crosses in each quadrant. He didn't want to talk about it, but has a spiritual side that he keeps private, and says he feels obligated to do his part to preserve the Earth for the next generation.

Congressional Hearings Called For In Hyundai MPG Sticker Scandal

November 19, 2012 · Jamie Court

<img class=" alignright size-full wp-image-2597" alt="" src="https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/hyundailogo.png" style="width: 273px; height: 184px; float: right;" width="273" height="184" />Washington, DC – Consumer Watchdog today called upon leaders of the House and Senate Commerce committees to hold hearings into the revelation by the EPA that for the first time in American history large numbers of vehicles carried window stickers with false MPG claims.

Insurer Plan to Weaken Health Reform Would Increase Deficit $1 Billion

November 9, 2012 · Carmen Balber

<img class=" alignright size-full wp-image-2524" alt="" class="right" src="https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/images_healthdollars.png" style="width: 175px; height: 94px; margin-left: 7px; margin-right: 7px; float: right;" width="375" height="201" />Lost in the ongoing election postmortem was this <a href="https://consumerwatchdog.org/resources/cbohr1206.pdf">report yesterday from the Congressional Budget Office</a> that a bill being pushed by the insurance industry and its salespeople to eliminate one of the strongest consumer protections in the health reform law would increase the deficit by more than $1 billion and raise health insurance costs for consumers.

Prop 103 California Insurance Reform

New Bill Requires Insurance Companies to Offer and Renew Insurance Coverage for Fire-Safe Homes

Homeowners Dropped by Insurers