Consumer Watchdog – Home - Search CWD (current)

SANTA MONICA, CA – Consumer Watchdog’s InsideGoogle.com has taken its online privacy campaign to New York’s Times Square, where it has purchased a 540 sq. ft. Jumbotron digital advertisement promoting an animated video satirizing Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s attitude toward consumer privacy.

Insurers, Employers Threaten to Drop Low-Benefit Employee Insurance If $750,000 Annual Benefit Limit Is Enforced
 
Washington, DC — Americans were promised meaningful health benefits under health reform and deserve better than the near-worthless junk insurance that low-wage employers are lobbying to preserve, said Consumer Watchdog. The group urged President Obama to resist making wholesale exemptions to the new law.

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.

Actuarial Soundness” Defense Protects Insurers At Expense of Rate Regulation, Consumer Watchdog Says

Los Angeles, CA -- Anthem Blue Cross’s defense of its recent controversial premium increases will be codified in law under eleventh hour legislation by San Francisco State Senator Mark Leno, SB 1163, just as the California legislature is set to adjourn Tuesday night. Consumer Watchdog, the group behind auto insurance regulation Prop 103 that has saved Californians $62 billion, warned that if health insurers can defend rates simply by having an actuary say the increases are “actuarial sound,” as Anthem Blue Cross did and Leno’s legislation provides, consumers will be in big trouble.

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.

Washington, DC – Consumer Watchdog called on the Obama Administration to adopt new regulations requiring broad financial disclosures by health insurance companies to help insulate Americans from double-digit rate increases. Insurers should provide details of shadowy multibillion-dollar transfers to out-of-state affiliates and parent companies when they are required to justify “unreasonable” rate increases under the health reform law, said the group.

Program Provides Economic Opportunity in Tough Times, With No Taxpayer Cost
 
Santa Monica, CA – California lawmakers gave final approval Wednesday to legislation strengthening and extending the innovative “Low Cost Auto Insurance Program” that offers an affordable bare bones car insurance policy to low-income motorists with no taxpayer cost. Consumer advocates applauded lawmakers for passing AB 1597 (Jones) on a bipartisan basis and are urging Governor Schwarzenegger to sign the bill in order to keep this program available.

Insurers' Actions Mirror Credit Card Companies' Interest Rate Increases Ahead of New Consumer Rights
 
Washington, DC —Consumer Watchdog and the Center for Media and Democracy today asked the Obama administration to investigate how the major for-profit health insurance companies are reducing their proportion of spending on health care in advance of health reform, even as premiums spike upward. In a letter to Health and Human Services chief Kathleen Sebelius, the groups compared insurers’ actions to those of credit card companies, which spiked annual interest rates last year in advance of new federal regulations that would curb corporate abuses.

Is Internet Giant’s Technology Being Used to Spy On Americans?

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The FBI and DEA are now making extensive use of Google Earth, according to federal spending records. Consumer Watchdog is filing Freedom of Information Act requests with the agencies today to determine how the Internet giant’s digital mapping technology is being used for domestic surveillance, including whether it is used for racial profiling or other abuses of civil liberties.

SANTA MONICA, CA — Google is compromising a long standing principle it claimed to support in an effort to boost profits as it backs away from a key premise of an open Internet — “net neutrality,” Consumer Watchdog said today. Net neutrality — the idea that all data is treated equally by Internet service providers — is a key principle of the Internet.  Google has long claimed to be an advocate of the principle.  Today both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times reported that Google and Verizon are close to a deal that would let Verizon speed some online content more quickly to Internet users if content providers paid for the privilege.

$1 Million Grant Would Bolster Industry-favored Schwarzenegger Plan, Help Kill Actual Regulation of Insurance Companies

Washington, DC -- Consumer Watchdog today asked Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to reject Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s request for a $1 million grant under the new health reform law. The grants are intended to help states strengthen regulation of health insurance companies, but the Schwarzenegger administration’s weak plan would kill proposed protections against unjustified rate increases, Consumer Watchdog charged.

If Californians Have to Buy Health Insurance, Insurers Have to Be Regulated, Says Watchdog’s Letter to Gov.

Santa Monica, CA -- Consumer Watchdog has called on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to withdraw weak pseudo-reforms of the health insurance industry that would bar strong regulation of health insurers. Schwarzenegger sent his proposals this month to lawmakers who are seeking stronger state regulation modeled on the successful market reforms of auto and homeowner insurance under Proposition 103, demanding that they substitute his legislation for their bills.

Americans Favor Broad Range Of Online Privacy Protections for Consumers

SANTA MONICA, CA -- A significant majority of Americans are troubled by recent revelations that Google’s Street View cars gathered communications from home WiFi networks, and they want stronger legal protection to preserve their online privacy, according to a national opinion poll released today by Consumer Watchdog.

At the hearing, a consumer watchdog testified that he believed the White House was too cozy with Google, and the company’s lobbying interests. “I do think that Google specifically has perhaps too close a relationship with the government,” said John Simpson, director of the Stem Cell Project. “I think Mr. McLaughlin’s appointment is one of those ties that are inappropriate.”

WASHINGTON, DC -- Consumer Advocate John M. Simpson today repeated Consumer Watchdog’s call for Congressional hearings into the Google Wi-Spy scandal during testimony about federal agency use of Web 2.0 technology. The hearing was before the Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census and National Archives of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Santa Monica, CA -- Consumer Watchdog today praised a group of 37 state attorneys general for seeking to get to the bottom of the Google Wi-Spy scandal and reiterated its call for the House Energy and Commerce Committee to hold hearings on the issue.

WASHINGTON, DC — Google spent $1.34 million trying to influence  federal lawmakers and regulators in the second quarter of 2010, a 41 percent increase over $950,000 in the same period a year ago, Consumer Watchdog said today. Besides its willingness to spend, a key to Google’s lobbying effort is its well-connected Washington staff, most of whom have worked for Congress or the executive branch, said the nonpartisan, nonprofit public interest group.

SANTA MONICA, CA — Citing new information about Google’s classified government contracts and the Internet giant’s admitted Wi-Spying activity, Consumer Watchdog today said it is more imperative than ever for the Energy and Commerce Committee to conduct hearings into possible privacy violations by Google.

Washington, D.C. – Consumer Watchdog applauded final Congressional passage today of the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which now heads to President Obama for his signature.