Insurance

Insurance Modernization Report Past Due

February 3, 2012  ·  Mark Reback

<p> WASHINGTON, Feb. 3 (LID) – The recently created Federal Insurance Office (FIO) within the U.S. Department of Treasury has missed its deadline to report to Congress on how best to improve oversight of the insurance industry.</p> <p> Title V of the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009 (Pub.L. 111-203), which created the FIO, called for the study to be submitted to Congress no later than 18 months after the date the so-called Dodd-Frank Act took effect.</p>

Make History Today — Sign Our Official Ballot Petition

February 2, 2012  ·  Jamie Court

<p> <a href="http://justifyrates.org"><img class=" alignright size-full wp-image-2366" alt="" class="right" src="https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/images_signthepetition.png" style="width: 177px; height: 231px; float: right; margin-left: 7px; margin-right: 7px;" width="177" height="231" /></a>We are doing it! Today we launched our ballot initiative drive to force health insurance companies to publicly justify their rates and get permission for rate hikes.<br /> <br /> If you are a registered voter in California, your signature today can stop outrageous health insurance premium increases.  Please:<br /> <br />

Consumer Watchdog Campaign Begins Battle for Rate Regulation in the Health Insurance Industry

February 2, 2012  ·  Mark Reback

<p> <img alt="" height="217" src="http://a.scpr.org/i/2bba14ac62c4da8edc5bba415b80ed0d/33301-lead.jpg" width="324" /></p> <div class="asset_byline" style="font-size:10px;text-align:left;color:#777"> Steve Rhodes/Flickr</div> <p> Health care reform protest at Blue Shield of California, October, 2009.</p> <p> <a href="http://www.scpr.org/programs/patt-morrison/2012/02/02/22380/consumer-watchdog-campaign-begins-battle-for-rate-">Click here to listen to the audio of this news broadcast</a>.</p>

Consumer Watchdog Wants California To Regulate Health Insurance Hikes

February 2, 2012  ·  Mark Reback

<p> There’s a grassroots movement underway to change insurance law, giving California the power to regulate health insurance rate hikes.</p> <p> The proposed initiative by Consumer Watchdog, a group based in Santa Monica, will require health insurance companies to ask permission from the state insurance commissioner before raising premiums. It’s modeled after Proposition 103, the organization’s 1988 ballot measure that now regulates how much auto insurance companies can charge.</p>

Valerie Burchfield-Rhodes – Laguna Niguel, CA (Orange County)

February 1, 2012  ·  Mark Reback

<p> <img class=" size-full wp-image-2369" alt="" class="right" src="https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/images_valerierhodesfamily.jpeg" style="width: 270px; height: 203px;" width="640" height="480" /></p>

Sen. Feinstein Backs Health Insurance Rate Controls

February 1, 2012  ·  Mark Reback

<p> A high-stakes ballot measure to give state regulators the power to approve health insurance rates in California has landed a heavyweight supporter: U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein.</p> <p class="body"> One of California's most respected politicians, Feinstein has come forward as the chief spokeswoman and No. 1 booster of a proposed initiative to regulate hikes in health premiums.</p>

Consumer Group Attacks Auto Insurers ‘Disparate Treatment’ of Low Income

January 30, 2012  ·  Mark Reback

<p> A consumer group on Monday issued a study that shows ‘disparate treatment’ of low-to moderate-income families by auto insurers nationwide, and is asking state insurance commissioners to consider lowering minimum liability coverage requirements, and creating low-income purchase programs.</p> <p> A study released from the Consumer Federation of America concludes that the auto insurance marketplace “denies important economic opportunities, especially those related to employment, to low- and moderate-income (LMI) households.”</p>

Billionaire Insurance Exec Backs Initiative to Change Rate Rules

January 27, 2012  ·  Mark Reback

<p> <em>UPDATE, Jan. 27, 2012: Mercury Insurance provided <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/79626976/Mercury-Response" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this response</a> to questions about its record.</em></p> <p> The 90-year-old billionaire chairman of Mercury Insurance just won’t give up.</p>

Deborah Starrett – Los Angeles, CA

January 24, 2012  ·  Mark Reback

<p> My husband and I own a small business and we’ve had individual Anthem Blue Cross policies for nearly 30 years now. In that whole time we’ve met the deductible only one or two years. Almost all of our medical care costs have come out of our own pockets. Yet in the space of 8 months last year, Blue Cross increased our premiums 40%. We have to take money out of our retirement IRA just to keep our insurance. We’re afraid that otherwise we would lose our house if one of us fell seriously ill.</p>

Karyn Mor – San Diego, CA

January 24, 2012  ·  Mark Reback

<p>(Updated 2/4/13)</p> <p>We just received a 15% premium increase notice from Blue Cross that brought premiums for our family of four--my husband Tamir, myself and our two youngest children--to $2,176 per month as of February 1. This is an increase of $284.00 per month, and is in addition to three other increases since October 2010. Our premiums have gone up more than $800 per month in just over two years. The monthly insurance payment is now significantly more than our mortgage payment!</p>

Deborah Randolph – Fountain Valley, CA (Orange County)

January 24, 2012  ·  Mark Reback

<p> My husband and I own a major-appliance repair business, and have been on an Anthem Blue Cross PPO policy since the early 80s. In the early years, the increases were reasonable and pretty predictable, so we could budget for them, but in the last several years it has been out of control.</p>

Laurel Kaufer – San Fernando Valley, CA

January 23, 2012  ·  Mark Reback

<p> As a self-employed single mother with two sons, I have struggled for more than a decade to balance the cost of health care and health insurance with the need to seek medical help. Our high-deductible health insurance policy with Blue Cross meant wrenching days of weighing a child’s spiking fever or sports injury against the out-of-pocket cost of seeing a doctor—or, even worse, going to an emergency room.</p>