Recent
Blog Post
5/15/2012
By Judy Dugan
The rest of the country is happily watching gasoline prices sink as the latest bubble in oil crude prices springs a leak. Except California. Nationally, gasoline prices are down more than 15 cents a gallon over the last month, according to the daily AAA fuel gauge. California drivers are still cringing, with prices up more than 15 cents a gallon in just the last two weeks.
What gives? As...
Comments
Blog Post
5/12/2012
Daniel Palay
Next week we will be turning in the signatures for our ballot petition to force health insurance companies to justify their rates and get permission before instituting their rate hikes.
Download, sign and return in the mail by the end of the weekend to be part of the signature turn-in or forever hold your peace.
This short video preview of the initiative by our friends in Hollywood explains...
Blog Post
5/7/2012
Jamie Court
Two years ago, as federal health reform lay on death’s door, CEO Angela Braly, head of Blue Cross’s parent company Wellpoint, spit on beleaguered patients. She sat through poignant Congressional testimony from customers whose lives were being ruined by spiraling premium hikes, then Braly testified that the public outrage was "a triumph of sound bites over substance."
The...
Blog Post
5/15/2012
By Judy Dugan
The rest of the country is happily watching gasoline prices sink as the latest bubble in oil crude prices springs a leak. Except California. Nationally, gasoline prices are down more than 15 cents a gallon over the last month, according to the daily AAA fuel gauge. California drivers are still cringing, with prices up more than 15 cents a gallon in just the last two weeks.
What gives? As...
Blog Post
5/12/2012
Daniel Palay
Next week we will be turning in the signatures for our ballot petition to force health insurance companies to justify their rates and get permission before instituting their rate hikes.
Download, sign and return in the mail by the end of the weekend to be part of the signature turn-in or forever hold your peace.
This short video preview of the initiative by our friends in Hollywood explains...
Blog Post
5/7/2012
Jamie Court
Two years ago, as federal health reform lay on death’s door, CEO Angela Braly, head of Blue Cross’s parent company Wellpoint, spit on beleaguered patients. She sat through poignant Congressional testimony from customers whose lives were being ruined by spiraling premium hikes, then Braly testified that the public outrage was "a triumph of sound bites over substance."
The...
News Release
5/4/2012
John M. Simpson
SANTA MONICA, CA – The Federal Trade Commission appears ready to fine Google millions of dollars for hacking around privacy settings on iPhones and iPads. Consumer Watchdog filed a complaint in February with the FTC after Stanford Researcher Jonathan Mayer revealed what the Internet giant was doing.
Sara Forden of Bloomberg News today reported the Commission is negotiating with...
News Release
5/2/2012
John M. Simpson
SANTA MONICA, CA – Consumer Watchdog today filed a Freedom Of Information Act Request with the Federal Communications Commission seeking all documents related to the Commission’s investigation of the Google Wi-Spy scandal.
So far only the FCC’s Notice of Apparent Liability For Forfeiture has been made public. It ordered that Google pay $25,000 for willfully obstructing...
News Release
4/30/2012
John M. Simpson
SANTA MONICA, CA – Consumer Watchdog today called for a Senate hearing into the Google Wi-Spy scandal and urged that a key figure known in a Federal Communications Commission report as “Engineer Doe” be granted immunity from prosecution in return for his testimony.
Newly released un-redacted FCC documents show that many people at Google knew – or should have known...
Legal Update
10/31/2011
Jerry Flanagan
This week more than 100,000 California Blue Cross consumers will receive notice of their right to change coverage under a settlement in the Feller v. Blue Cross class action lawsuit.
Under the settlement, class members may (1) either change plans without medical underwriting to any one of the listed plans, or (2) remain in their current policy and have future rates capped. For more...
Legal Update
8/27/2011
Jerry Flanagan
Good news for Blue Cross consumers.
Yesterday morning I drove up to Ventura to attend the final approval hearing in Consumer Watchdog's class action lawsuit against Blue Cross for illegally closing insurance policies and using big rate hikes to force patients into lower-benefit and higher-deductible health coverage -- known as the "death spiral." Superior Court Judge Frederick H...
Legal Update
7/15/2011
By
Mercury Insurance wants to hike its already excessive homeowner’s insurance rates: Mercury’s stalling tactics have already cost its policyholders $25 million, and each day that Mercury is allowed to overcharge its policyholders amounts to $35,000 in excess profits.
In May 2009, Mercury Insurance sought to hike its homeowners' insurance rates 4% across the board. In...
Video
5/1/2012
One million Californians will be slammed today with health insurance rate hikes as high as 20%. Consumer Watchdog Campaign has a solution.
Watch this short, funny movie trailer about an alternative future with no rate hikes, and share it with your friends.
Health insurance price hikes recur more often than Groundhog Day -- Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall. Now there’s something...
Video
4/30/2012
Consumer Watchdog's Harvey Rosenfield stops by the Blue Cross headquarters in San Fransisco to discuss and promote a ballot proposition that would force health insurers to publicly justify their rate increases before they could take effect.
Video
4/18/2012
Consumer Watchdog's Judy Dugan takes on the "hot fuel" ripoff on NBC's Today Show. The pain at the gas pump is palpable. Making it worse: a summertime gas station secret cheats drivers out of billions of dollars. And chains are fighting against changing the rules.
Success Stories
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Consumer Watchdog's founder led the 1988 voter revolt against insurers that passed Proposition 103 and saved Californians billions.
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We drove Congress to place a ban on HMOs discharging newborns and their mothers from the hospital 8 hours after birth.
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We beat a deceptive campaign funded by one of America's wealthiest men, ending insurers’ redlining of poor neighborhoods.
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