Insurance

Health Law Doesn’t Protect Californians From Rate Increases

December 7, 2012  ·  Carmen Balber

<p><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. </p>

Calif. Stem Cell Program Rife With Conflicts: NAS Report

December 6, 2012  ·  Mark Reback

<p><b>Agency should split operations from policy, add more oversight committee members without conflicts</b></p> <p>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>.</p>

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

December 5, 2012  ·  Jamie Court

<p>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!<br /> <br /> <a href="https://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/6563/p/salsa/donation/common/public/?donate_page_KEY=7519"><strong>Please watch this one minute video and join us in getting a refund of our excessive premium dollars</strong></a>.<br /> <br /> <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/bxhSEdLyUR4?rel=0" width="480"></iframe><br />

Health Insurance Rates Could Shoot Up

November 29, 2012  ·  Daniel Palay

<p>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.<br /> <br /> 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.<br /> <br />

Anthem Blue Cross Seeks To Raise Individual Policyholders’ Rates

November 28, 2012  ·  Daniel Palay

<p><b>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.</b><br />  </p>

Wealth As A Lever For Social Change

November 19, 2012  ·  Daniel Palay

<p>Tom Steyer wore the same plaid wool tie that he wore the last time, and the time before that, and the time before that.</p> <p>"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.</p> <p><br /> 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.</p>

Congressional Hearings Called For In Hyundai MPG Sticker Scandal

November 19, 2012  ·  Jamie Court

<p><em><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</em> – 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.<br /> <br />

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

November 9, 2012  ·  Carmen Balber

<p><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.</p>

Will the billionaires learn the rules of ballot measures?

November 8, 2012  ·  Jamie Court

<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><img class=" alignright size-full wp-image-2521" alt="" src="https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/victorysign.jpg" style="width: 100px; height: 116px; float: right;" width="86" height="100" />Insurance companies learned a lesson election night in California:  Don’t try to fool the voters or you’ll be the one looking foolish.<br /> <br /> <b>Thanks to your help voters saw through one insurance billionaire’s deceptive campaign and rejected Prop 33 with 55% opposed</b>.<br /> <br />

Prop. 33 Fight Over Auto Insurance Pricing Ends In Defeat

November 7, 2012  ·  Mark Reback

<p>SACRAMENTO — A Los Angeles insurance executive's drive to boost his company's fortunes by seeking authority to offer a new auto coverage discount got trounced by voters.</p> <p>Proposition 33, bankrolled by Mercury General Corp. Chairman George Joseph, lost with 45.4% of the vote to opposition of 54.6% with all California precincts reporting.</p> <p>The measure would have allowed insurers such as Mercury to give low-risk drivers a new discount when they switch companies.</p>

Voters Reject Bid To Change Insurance Rate-Setting

November 7, 2012  ·  Mark Reback

<p><span class="SS_L3"><span class="verdana">LOS ANGELES, CA -- </span></span><span class="SS_L3"><span class="verdana">For the second time in three years, voters have rejected a ballot initiative that would have let auto insurers charge drivers based on their history of maintaining coverage.</span></span></p> <p class="loose"><span class="SS_L3"><span class="verdana"><span class="hit"><span>Proposition 33</span></span> failed Tuesday with about 55 percent voting against.</span></span></p>

Proposition 33 Opponents Ready To Take On Health Insurers

November 7, 2012  ·  Mark Reback

<p>SACRAMENTO -- The consumer activists that defeated the Proposition 33 auto insurance initiative, despite their small budget, are crowing over their victory and spoiling for a new fight.</p> <p>This tiime, it's with the health insurance industry.</p> <p>Consumer Watchdog of Santa Monica is winding up its own initiative on the 2014 ballot to regulate health insurance rates in much the same way the state oversees auto insurance premiums under California's landmark Proposition 103 law of 1988.</p>