Consumer Watchdog – Affordable Car & Home Insurance - Articles

Consumer Watchdog's calls for tough and open health insurance rate regulation are being echoed and amplified. The latest instance is in Connecticut, the home state of insurance companies, where Attorney General Earl Blumenthal recently proposed major reforms that would require the state to review and reject, modify or allow a rate change before it goes into effect. No more shrugging and letting it happen without a public review.

President Obama should include a provision freezing health insurance rates in the package of revisions Democrats are drafting for the Senate-passed health care overhaul bill (HR 3590), a California-based consumer group said Wednesday. Other provisions that the Consumer Watchdog group wants to see included are a requirement that state regulators approve rate increases before they go into effect, and that federal grants be made available to states for developing these "prior approval" regulations. "Given the audacity of health insurance rate increases last year and this year, and with the economy in deep recession, only federal legislation can curb the spiral of unaffordability," said Carmen Balber, the Washington director for the group.

Washington, DC -- Harvey Rosenfield, author of California’s landmark insurance regulation Proposition 103—recognized as the most successful insurance regulation in the country—was joined today by people struggling to pay for health insurance in calling on President Obama and Congress to impose a national freeze on health insurance rates as part of the final round of votes on reform. Consumers must have a breather from yearly premium hikes like the 39% increase planned by Anthem Blue Cross, said Consumer Watchdog, which Rosenfield founded.

Opponents, including Doug Heller, who works with Proposition 103 author Harvey Rosenfield at Santa Monica-based Consumer Watchdog, said the real aim of Mercury is to lift the ban on surcharges for drivers who need to reinstate coverage after letting their auto insurance policies lapse. “This would allow Mercury to jack up prices for customers they don’t really want,” said Heller, spokesman for Campaign for Consumer Rights, the main opposition group to Proposition 17.

Insurers Would Get Tens of Millions of New Customers Under Reform, and Owe Americans a Break from Audacious Rate Spikes By Anthem Blue Cross and Others

Washington, DC -- Consumer Watchdog called on President Obama to impose a national freeze on health insurance rates before health reform takes effect to protect consumers from premium hikes like the 39% increase recently announced by Anthem Blue Cross in California. The rate freeze is one of five tools Consumer Watchdog urged the president to include as part of his proposed fixes to the Senate health care bill.

A judge will hear testimony on three related cases surrounding ballot language for Proposition 17, which backers say will allow discounts for more drivers and opponents claim will create back-door rate increases. The latest is Attorney General Jerry Brown's attempt to change the official title and summary to say the measure "will allow insurance companies to increase cost of insurance to drivers who do not have a history of continuous insurance coverage," according to the lawsuit. Due to what Brown's office argued is its error, the language submitted by the attorney general to the California Secretary of State reads, "may allow insurance companies to increase cost of insurance to drivers who do not qualify for discount."

The argument is over the arguments submitted against Proposition 17, the Mercury Insurance-backed measure that supporters say would allow auto insurers to extend discounts for maintaining continuous coverage to motorists who switch carriers. The opponents, who say the change would result in rate hikes for motorists who experienced a lapse in coverage, countered that Mercury Insurance is the one lying and attempting to mislead the public with its attempt to shut them up.

More than $3.51 million of Cal-FAIR’s $3.58 million campaign war chest came from insurance giant Mercury General Corp. Consumer Watchdog founder Harvey Rosenfield, one of the ballot-pamphlet argument co-authors named in the suit, said he looks forward to seeing Mercury in court. “For months, Mercury has been lying to the public, to state officials and to the news media about its June ballot initiative,” he said. “Indeed, for more than 10 years, the Department of Insurance and the courts have repeatedly concluded that Mercury’s proposal would create a new rating factor — the consideration of prior insurance history — that is currently illegal.” “The fact is that today, under current law, if you stop driving you won’t pay more when you restart your insurance coverage,” Rosenfield continued. “If Mercury’s Prop. 17 passes, insurance companies will be allowed to charge a lot more to good drivers who didn’t need insurance when they weren’t driving, or who missed a single payment, or who chose to fore-go coverage because of the economy or illness.”

California Attorney General Jerry Brown has issued his final ballot label for Proposition 17, the Mercury Insurance-financed ballot measure to surcharge those with lapses in auto insurance coverage.  Brown got the ballot label right this time, acknowledging Prop 17 allowed insurers to increase premiums, as well as lower prices, based on whether a driver has a lapse in insurance coverage.

Literature For Prop. 17 Omits Mercury’s Millions

Officially, the proposition is the handiwork of Californians for Fair Auto Insurance Rates or Cal-FAIR, which describes itself as “a growing coalition of consumer advocates, businesses and insurers from across the state.” But Cal-FAIR is actually the creation of a Sacramento public-affairs firm, Bicker, Castillo & Fairbanks, that has so far earned $200,000 from Mercury for its work on the campaign, part of the insurer’s $3.5 million total contribution to the effort.