Recent
News Release
6/2/2012
Jamie Court & Carmen Balber
Los Angeles, CA -- The California Secretary of State cleared the ballot petition that requires health insurance companies to get approval for rate hikes, and creates fairer insurance rating factors, for the random sample count of signature verification yesterday. County registrars reported enough “raw count” signatures to move the petition to the next phase of the qualification...
Blog Post
5/31/2012
By Judy Dugan
Thursday's reports that some Californians will get rebates on their health insurance premiums are a little bit of good news--but not nearly as good as it could be.
An L.A. Times story reports that California small businesses and their employees who are insured by United Health Group will get rebates averaging $98 on last year's premiums because United Health didn't spend at least...
News Release
5/30/2012
Judy Dugan & Jamie Court
Santa Monica, CA -- The state’s award of a contract for up to 1,900 Ford vehicles for the California Highway Patrol and other state agencies is a snub to GM and Chrysler, which eagerly sought the prestigious contract.
Consumer Watchdog applauded the tentative award, noting that of the Big 3 U.S. automakers, only Ford is not in a coalition battling to keep a California tax loophole that...
Blog Post
5/31/2012
By Judy Dugan
Thursday's reports that some Californians will get rebates on their health insurance premiums are a little bit of good news--but not nearly as good as it could be.
An L.A. Times story reports that California small businesses and their employees who are insured by United Health Group will get rebates averaging $98 on last year's premiums because United Health didn't spend at least...
Blog Post
5/24/2012
By John M. Simpson
Consumer Watchdog has long held the view that Google's executives are hypocrites, claiming their mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful, while remaining deeply secretive about the company's activities.
It wasn't a popular view of the Internet giant. I think many people used to see Google as a feisty start-up offering "...
Blog Post
5/23/2012
By Judy Dugan
Wow. People really don't like insurance companies or their overpaid CEOs.
Our news release Wednesday, and a similar message to our mailing list, cheered the pending departure of Blue Shield CEO Bruce Bodaken. We included a rundown of how he treated his customers in the last few years: A rate increase proposal of up to 86% in a year. A corporate stash of $3.2 billion in excessive...
News Release
6/2/2012
Jamie Court & Carmen Balber
Los Angeles, CA -- The California Secretary of State cleared the ballot petition that requires health insurance companies to get approval for rate hikes, and creates fairer insurance rating factors, for the random sample count of signature verification yesterday. County registrars reported enough “raw count” signatures to move the petition to the next phase of the qualification...
News Release
5/30/2012
Judy Dugan & Jamie Court
Santa Monica, CA -- The state’s award of a contract for up to 1,900 Ford vehicles for the California Highway Patrol and other state agencies is a snub to GM and Chrysler, which eagerly sought the prestigious contract.
Consumer Watchdog applauded the tentative award, noting that of the Big 3 U.S. automakers, only Ford is not in a coalition battling to keep a California tax loophole that...
News Release
5/30/2012
John M. Simpson
SANTA MONICA, CA –Google’s driverless cars should not be allowed on U.S. highways unless adequate privacy protections for users of the new technology are implemented, Consumer Watchdog said today.
The nonpartisan, nonprofit group urged the California Assembly to defeat a bill, SB 1298, that would allow Google’s driverless cars on California’s roads unless the...
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
5/22/2012
Consumer Watchdog's Harvey Rosenfield and Jamie Court join with other consumer advocates and the State's Insurance Commissioner, Dave Jones, to turn in the quarter million signatures collected in LA County. These signatures - counting over 800,000 state-wide - will allow voters to decide next November if health insurers should have to publicly justify their rate hikes before they can...
Video
5/21/2012
Fed up with the endless rate hikes health insurers in California impose on them, over 800,000 Californians signed the petition to put a proposition on the November ballot that would force health insurers to publicly justify their rate hikes and seek approval from the state insurance commissioner before they can take effect.
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...
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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