Consumer Watchdog – Going to Court - Blog

The President called for an up or down vote on health care reform, but I can say from my own experience this week working with Blue Cross patients, who are part of Consumer Watchdog’s lawsuit against he company, that the public has already cast its vote. 

President Obama's "get it done" speech on health reform Wednesday may have been a day late, but I hope it's not a dollar short, as the old saying goes. At least he has one tremendous ally in his call for action by Congress: Anthem Blue Cross, and the continuing outrage at its huge rate increases.

Veteran political cartoonist Clay Bennett of Chattanooga has the solution...

As pressure builds toward Thursday's "bipartisan" presidential summit on health care reform, some Capitol Hill staffers have reported receiving calls from the White House claiming the President is ready to give up the legal rights of medical malpractice victims for GOP support.

What's wrong with the trade-off? LA's local NPR talk radio host, Larry Mantle of KPCC's Air Talk, asked me yesterday in a midst of a debate about Obama's new health care reform proposal, which appropriately did not mention any changes to medical malpractice accountability. So I told Steven Olsen's story.

Yesterday happened to be the 20th birthday for Steven Olsen, whose tragic story at the age of two year deeply touched me and every one who ever heard it. Steven and his terrific parents, Kathy and Scott, will be at the White House next Monday to stop the President from using the remedies of innocent patients as a bargaining chip to get Republican votes. If President Obama personally spends a few minutes with Steven, it's hard to imagine how his conscience will let him sell out the rights of injured patients for Republican votes.

In a stunning show of fealty to insurance giant Safeco, 25 Republican lawmakers have asked the California Supreme Court to overturn an appellate ruling that Safeco Insurance has to disclose the names of policyholders it may have cheated...

The corporate attack on California consumer protection laws suffered a setback today. The California Supreme Court rejected the tobacco industry’s attempt to gut consumers’ ability to bring class actions under one of the...

Here's the latest from the Associated Press about a new California Supreme Court case allowing a false advertising case against the tobacco industry to proceed and clarifying guidelines for future cases. Consumer Watchdog filed a friend of the court brief in the case. 

Last week, Allstate was ordered by the Insurance Commissioner to reduce its homeowners insurance rates by approximately $242 million - an average $250 savings...

Our legal team was in San Francisco this week fighting another unjustified insurance rate hike - this time a 6% earthquake insurance rate increase...