Consumer Watchdog – Home - Press Releases

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.

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.

Santa Monica, CA - Anthem Blue Cross, the California subsidiary of the nation’s largest health insurer, WellPoint Inc., has used enormous rate hikes to force patients into lower-benefit and higher-deductible health coverage in violation of state law, according to a class action lawsuit filed today by Blue Cross policyholders and consumer advocates.

Washington, DC – A leaked proposal by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd to give consumer protection authority to the Federal Reserve Board in financial reform legislation would be a total capitulation to Wall Street lobbying, said Consumer Watchdog, and urged Senate committee members to insist on a strong independent consumer protection regulator or refuse to move a bill forward.

Los Angeles, CA -- Evidence uncovered this week in the Los Angeles trial of Anthem Blue Cross, subsidiary of WellPoint Inc., which denied a grocer payment for an out-of-state liver transplant, shows the insurance giant will only approve exceptions to its in-state transplant network if patients “push back.”

WASHINGTON, DC — Consumer Watchdog today called upon the Justice Department to ensure that its ongoing antitrust probe of Google’s business practices include an investigation of whether the Internet giant is manipulating its search results to favor its own products.

Group Urges House Subcommittee to Expand Hearings, Investigate Possible Insurer 'Shell Games' in Justifying Massive Premium Increases

Washington D.C. -- The House subcommittee grilling Blue Cross chief executive Angela Braly today should expand its financial examination of Blue Cross and its parent, Wellpoint, to include billions of dollars in dividend transfers and no-bid "service contracts" with affiliate companies, said Consumer Watchdog. Such financial transfers may have been used in California to artificially justify this year's 39% premium increases, said the nonprofit watchdog organization.

Citing Public Mistrust, Group Calls For Release of All Documents Obtained in Commissioner’s Investigation of 39% Premium Increases
 
Sacramento, CA — Consumer Watchdog today condemned Blue Cross’s transfer of $2.8 billion to its parent company since 2007, including approximately $719.5 million in 2009 alone, as a way of hiding its true financial condition from regulators scrutinizing steep rate hikes.  Consumer Watchdog said Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner should seize on the transfers to invalidate recent premium hikes and should make Blue Cross documents available for public scrutiny.

Washington, D.C. -- The consumer group that pioneered the most successful insurance premium regulation law in the nation, California's Proposition 103, today said only the extension of such "prior approval" regulation to health insurance can begin to make insurance affordable in the wake of double digit premium increases that have dramatically out paced wages. 

National Health Care Reformers Should Pay Attention to Lawsuit Alleging That Nation's Largest Insurer Denies Liver Transplants Automatically
 
Los Angeles, CA -- A trial beginning today targeting the nation’s largest health insurer, WellPoint Inc., and its California subsidiary, Anthem Blue Cross, illustrates how difficult, and how necessary, President Obama’s call to curb insurance company abuses will be, said Consumer Watchdog. The Los Angeles trial alleges that Blue Cross has automatically denied requests for out-of-network liver transplants, no matter what a doctor says is necessary, often without even reviewing all patient records. The trial will shed light on the delay and denial of life-saving treatment in cases that might cut into insurance company profits, the consumer advocacy group said.