Consumer Watchdog – Fighting Corporateering - Articles

Jones/Feuer Effort Defeated; Schwarzenegger/Leno Bill Clears Legislature Allowing Insurers to Charge "Unreasonable" and "Unjustified" Premiums
 
Santa Monica, CA – Sacramento lawmakers, buffeted by hundreds of thousands of dollars in insurance company contributions, defeated a strong insurance rate reform bill supported by consumer and labor organization (AB 2578- Jones/Feuer) late Tuesday night. Democratic opponents of the Jones/Feuer legislation supported an alternative bill, proposed by Governor Schwarzenegger and carried by Senator Mark Leno (SB 1163), that allows insurers to charge excessive health insurance premiums under a new, industry-preferred standard that merely requires rates to be "actuarially sound."  

Santa Monica, CA -- Some of the top Democratic recipients of health insurance cash teamed up with Republicans in the California state senate late Monday to block health insurance premium legislation authored by state Assembly Members Dave Jones and Mike Feuer. Overall health insurers have given $800,218 in campaign contributions to California senators since 2007, in addition to gifts and donations made at their behest to nonprofit groups according to an analysis by Consumer Watchdog.

Despite what the spinmeisters over at Google's Public Policy Blog would have you believe, the Internet giant is facing tough...

Wouldn't it be great if we could all deduct our federal income and investment taxes from next year's income? And if we could also deduct that stress-reducing trip to a spa in Bora Bora? And if the government would just take our word for it? Fantasy for us, but the health insurance industry think that's what federal health reform ought to allow, on a corporate scale.

Four members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet, on Monday ...

Insurance Commissioners and Obama Administration Must Resist More Weakening of Curbs on Industry Overhead and Profit, Says Consumer Watchdog

Seattle, WA --The nation’s state insurance commissioners are making far-reaching decisions in Seattle this week on whether health insurance companies will spend more on health care, less on their own overhead and investor profit. The decisions will affect whether insurance companies continue with double-digit premium increases and declines in the amount of actual health care they provide, or seek a more efficient business model that is as fair to consumers as it is to Wall Street, said Consumer Watchdog.

As part of ObamaCare, the federal government will impose strict new spending rules on health insurers. How it does so could have a sweeping impact on the industry and patient care. "We believe that insurance companies will get enough goodies out of the new "medical loss ratio" (MLR) law that they will not have to do business any differently," said Consumer Watchdog's Judy Dugan. "If a nursing line is something where a nurse can advise a patient on treatment, sure, that may be a medical expense. But if it is just to determine if a patient needs to see a doctor, that's just cost containment."

I'm just back from a sweltering week in Washington, DC, convinced that those of us who care about protecting consumers' online privacy have reason for optimism.  There is growing interest in creating a "Do Not Track...

It's livelier Saturday at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners meeting in Seattle. Most refreshing was a medium-sized street demonstration, with forays into meeting rooms, by young and old demonstrators protesting lobbyist influence on health care reform. They handed out "lobbyist disinfectant packs," including soap and face masks, and demanded that regulators do their job for consumers. The sponsor was the "Puget Sound Alliance for Retired Americans," and it was backed by Health Care for America Now, a national group that is finally engaging with vigor on regulation issues.

The nonprofit group Consumer Watchdog is seeking to determine the extent of the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration's use of Google Earth in its investigations, spokesman John M. Simpson said last week. Federal contracting records reviewed by Consumer Watchdog show that the FBI has spent more than $600,000 on Google Earth since 2007. The Drug Enforcement Administration, meanwhile, has spent more than $67,000. Simpson has called on Congress to investigate how U.S. law enforcement and intelligence communities are using Google technologies. The group says it has concerns that data could be used for racial profiling.