Insurance

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>

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>

Alison Heath – San Francisco, CA

January 23, 2012  ·  Mark Reback

<p><img class=" size-full wp-image-2360" alt="" class="right" src="https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/images_alison_heath.jpeg" style="width: 242px; height: 242px;" width="432" height="432" />I feel like Blue Cross is stealing from us by charging us more for less coverage and there’s nothing we can do.</p> <p>Since October of 2010 we’ve had premium increases of 46% and on top of that they have increased our co-payments and annual deductibles. Our PPO Share 2500 policy with a $2500 deductible will soon have a $2950 deductible. This is an 18% increase. Copays are going from $35 to $40, also an 18% increase.</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>

Latest Auto Insurance Brawl ‘Not Personal’

January 22, 2012  ·  Mark Reback

<p> From the courts to the Capitol to the ballot, insurance magnate George Joseph and attorney Harvey Rosenfield, who wrote the 1988 initiative that regulated auto insurance, have been butting heads for a quarter century.</p> <p> They assure me it's not personal.</p> <p> There was nothing personal in 2009 when Consumer Watchdog, the Santa Monica advocacy group founded by Rosenfield, bought billboard space on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles declaring, "You Can't Trust Mercury Insurance," the company that Joseph founded 50 years ago.</p>

Auto Insurance Discount Initiative Approved For Ballot

January 19, 2012  ·  Mark Reback

<p> An automobile insurance discount initiative, more than 99% bankrolled by the chairman of Mercury Insurance, has qualified to go before voters on November's ballot.</p> <p> Officially sponsored by a trade group, the American Agents Alliance, the proposal would provide motorists, who switch insurance companies, with a discount if they had been previously insured.</p> <p> Passage of the initiative, whose petitions got signatures from almost 505,000 registered voters, would make the automobile insurance market more competitive, supporters argue.</p>

Consumer Advocates Push for Greater Health Plan Rate Regulations

January 17, 2012  ·  Mark Reback

<p> One year after a new law (<a href="http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/09-10/bill/sen/sb_1151-1200/sb_1163_bill_20100930_chaptered.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SB 1163</a>) expanded state officials' ability to review health plan rates, some consumer advocates are calling for greater power to regulate insurance rates, the <a href="http://www.contracostatimes.com/bay-area-news/ci_19740425" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><i>Contra Costa Times</i></a> reports.</p> <p class="subheading"> <strong>Background</strong></p>

Thomas Richardson – San Diego, CA

January 16, 2012  ·  Mark Reback

<p><img class=" size-full wp-image-2356" alt="" class="right" src="https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/images_thomasrichardson.jpg" style="width: 300px; height: 225px;" width="1200" height="900" />(Updated January 2013)</p> <p>We’ve just been notified that the Blue Shield policy covering me and my wife is rising 11% from $1090.00 a month to $1219.00 a month as of March 1, 2013, with $5500 deductibles and 30% copays for both my wife and me.</p>

California Needs Reasonable Controls On Health Care Premiums

January 16, 2012  ·  Mark Reback

<p> California should join the majority of states across the nation, 36 of 50, that have authority to control health insurance rate hikes.</p> <p> A consumer group is expecting to begin collecting signatures within the next few days to put a regulatory measure on the November ballot. They should work to give California voters the opportunity to voice their opinion on how much regulation is needed over an industry raking in record profits.</p>

California Regulators Still Have Little Power Over Insurance Rate Hikes

January 16, 2012  ·  Mark Reback

<p> California regulators last year won expanded authority to scrutinize health insurance rate hikes, but their continued lack of real power has consumers gearing up for a new battle with the insurance industry over rate regulation.<br /> <br /> The new law permits regulators to conclude a rate hike is excessive, but they can only try to persuade or shame insurers into backing off.<br /> <br /> Consumers want California to join the 36 states with some form of rate control.<br /> <br />

Consumers Are Taking The Fight To Health Insurance Companies!

January 15, 2012  ·  Carmen Balber

<p> California's health care system is broken. Health insurance premiums rose a whopping 153.5% since 2002, more than five times the rate of inflation. Health insurance companies set premiums in secret, and don't tell anyone how or why they raise our rates. It's no surprise that we're being ripped off.</p> <p> From the front page of <a href="http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_19745736">this morning's Contra Costa Times</a>:</p>