Recent
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 "...
Comments
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...
Blog Post
5/23/2012
Jamie Court
The long time CEO of Blue Shield Bruce Bodaken resigned today after a multi-year battle with us over disclosure of his $4.6 million annual salary and unreasonable premium hikes.
During his tenure, Bodaken oversaw a health insurance company that has raised rates by tens of millions of dollars while stockpiling $3.2 billion more in “reserves” than the state requires.
Blue Shield is...
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...
Blog Post
5/23/2012
Jamie Court
The long time CEO of Blue Shield Bruce Bodaken resigned today after a multi-year battle with us over disclosure of his $4.6 million annual salary and unreasonable premium hikes.
During his tenure, Bodaken oversaw a health insurance company that has raised rates by tens of millions of dollars while stockpiling $3.2 billion more in “reserves” than the state requires.
Blue Shield is...
News Release
5/23/2012
Carmen Balber & Jamie Court
Santa Monica, CA -- The announcement that Blue Shield CEO Bruce Bodaken will retire at the end of this year comes as insurance companies face the prospect of new rules to curb health insurance company excesses, said Consumer Watchdog. The group has sharply criticized Bodaken for keeping his CEO pay -- which reached $4.6 million in 2010 -- secret until he was forced to disclose it last year, and...
News Release
5/21/2012
John M. Simpson
SANTA MONICA, CA – Consumer Watchdog today welcomed the European Commission’s finding that Google’s business practices may violate antitrust law, but predicted that the Internet giant will not offer meaningful remedies voluntarily. The nonpartisan, nonpartisan group said antitrust officials on both sides of the Atlantic should consider breaking up the company.
The...
News Release
5/18/2012
Jamie Court & Harvey Rosenfield
Los Angeles, CA -- Patients who have suffered skyrocketing health insurance rates joined with the leaders of Consumer Watchdog Campaign to turn in more than 800,000 voter signatures for a ballot initiative requiring health insurance companies to open their books and justify rates, under penalty of perjury, before their rate increases take effect. Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones...
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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