Protecting Patients

Holding Health Insurers Accountable

Mega-mergers have given HMOs, PPOs and other health insurers a stranglehold over our health care system. Coupled with inadequate regulatory oversight, insurance company profiteering and abusive practices are on the rise.

Consumer Watchdog research has found that health insurance companies keep 50% of our premium dollars for overhead and profit. As a result, we all pay more for less coverage. Health insurers also refuse to sell policies to those with minor health problems and cancel coverage when people get sick and need coverage the most.

Consumer Watchdog will work to crack down on health care industry waste and profitteering and put an end to junk insurance.

Recent Articles:

Revisions to Health Care Reform Must Include Rate Freeze, Rate Regulation and States' Rights Provisions, Says Consumer Watchdog

CONTACT: Jerry Flanagan, (310) 889-4912; or Judy Dugan, (310) 392-0522, ext. 305
March 8, 2010

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Anthem's Rate Hikes To Add To Burdens Of Jobless

By Tom Kisken, THE VENTURA COUNTY STAR
March 6, 2010

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More Bad News For Anthem

By Evan George, THE DAILY JOURNAL OF LOS ANGELES
March 2, 2010

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Insurance Rate Hikes Fan Political Firestorm

By Bobby Caina Calvan, THE SACRAMENTO BEE
March 2, 2010

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Recent Posts in Protecting Patients:

Sarah Palin wasn't the only Alaskan border-hopping for health care

Sarah Palin, the Cruella DeVille of anti-government-health care, caught everyone's attention with the story of her family hopping the border from Skagway, Alaska, into the Yukon Territory for Canadian government health care when Palin was a child. Canadian newspapers noted cattily that Palin previously described going to Juneau, Alaska, for the same treatment for her brother's burned foot. Whatever. I wanted to know whether other Alaskans went to Canada for medical care--and still do.

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The no. 1 cure for Anthem Blue Cross greed: Here's the plan, from the expert

Harvey Rosenfield, the founder of Consumer Watchdog and the author of California's landmark insurance regulation, is the original expert on making insurance companies friendlier to consumers. So when he outlines a plan to make health insurance more affordable--and combat price spikes like the recent 39% annual increase by Anthem Blue Cross--he's got 20 years in the trenches making insurance companies toe the line, to back him up.

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Thanks Blue Cross, you gave the public its reason to reform

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. 

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President Obama's best ally--Anthem Blue Cross

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.

 

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The day when Daddy Warbucks couldn't afford health insurance

A few sentences in a Wall Street Journal story Tuesday, on Blue Cross insurance increases, made my eyes pop. If you take the words at face value, we're heading for a future in which a few very rich sick people will pay $10,000 a month for health insurance and the rest of us can just beg for bandages on the street.

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Anthem Blue Cross Rate Hikes

Excerpts From Jamie Court's Dateline Interview Covering Health Insurer Hell