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Blog Post
8/18/2008
Posted by Carmen Balber
Doctors have been claiming for more thanthirty years that lawsuits don't help keep patients safe from harm. A California law passed in 1975 drastically restricted the legal rights of medical negligence victims, and included a cap on pain and suffering damages of $250,000. Doctors said the law was necessary to protect them from unmerited lawsuits,...
Comments
Blog Post
5/9/2008
Posted by Judy Dugan
When the federal government passes a law but has no cops to enforce it, the crooks hold a "get out of jail free" card. That's the unfortunate effect of a sweeping and successful effort by drug and insurance companies to have federal law "preempt" state enforcement. A spate of stories today (LA Times, Wall Street Journal, New...
Blog Post
4/2/2008
posted by Jamie Court
Can Dennis Quaid's fight to make sense of his twin babies' harrowing ordeal at Cedars Sinai change the face of medicine? I'm betting on Quaid and his family's new foundation.
Quaid's appearance on the Today Show aired a straight-forward issue that has become unnecessarily overly-complicated on Capitol Hill, in state houses and in the media. The...
Blog Post
3/17/2008
posted by Carmen Balber
The state board charged with protecting Californians from bad doctors is doing too little, too late. Complaints about physician mistakes and misconduct are taking almost three years (934 days) to investigate and prosecute, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times today, leaving dangerous doctors to practice while patients are unaware there...
News Release
15 Years of Auto Insurance Regulation Has Reduced CA Premiums, While Rates Increased 47% Nationwide;
5/15/2007
CONTACT CONTACT: Carmen Balber, (310) 392-0522 ext. 324; or Jerry Flanagan, ext. 319
Prop 103-style Regulation of Health Insurance Will Be Debated in Legislature on Wednesday
Santa Monica, CA -- As the California legislature continues the debate on whether to regulate the health insurance industry on Wednesday, a new study of California's landmark insurance reform initiative, Proposition 103, shows that the nation's most effective...
Archived Article
6/29/2006
Consumer Watchdog
Dana Stinson - Seal Beach, CA
At the peak of her nursing career, Dana Stinson was permanently disabled by a disastrous surgery and the doctor's subsequent attempt to cover up her mistakes. Now, Dana will never care for another patient.
Dana went in for her yearly OB/GYN visit in 2002. Her doctor discovered abnormal growths in her uterus and...
Feature
3/18/2006
Carmen Balber
Medical malpractice insurance companies have made an art form out of deflecting responsibility for doctors' high insurance rates. The insurers claim, in the court of public opinion, that if patients' legal rights are limited - typically with a cap on noneconomic damages in malpractice lawsuits - then doctors' premiums will drop......
News Release
12/29/2005
CONTACT CONTACT: Harvey Rosenfield (310) 392-0522, ext. 303; or Douglas Heller, ext. 309
Consumer Advocates Call for Investigation of Insurance Accounting Practices
Santa Monica, CA -- In official documents filed with state regulators and in statements to public officials, medical malpractice insurance companies consistently inflated the amount they estimated they would pay out in claims, according to a study released today by the...
Feature
12/29/2005
Harvey Rosenfield and Carmen Balber
In this study, the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR) reviews the loss projections of medical malpractice insurance companies, beginning with the 'insurance crisis' of the mid-1980s. The data show that medical malpractice insurers have historically inflated their loss projections and then revised their reported losses downward in...
News Release
38 Senators With Up to $13.4 Million in Pharmaceutical Stock Approve Drug Industry's Sweetheart Deal
12/22/2005
CONTACT Carmen Balber - (310) 392-0522 ext. 324, or Jamie Court ext. 327
Santa Monica, CA -- 38 U.S. Senators with up to $13.4 million in pharmaceutical holdings increased the value of their stock portfolios last night when they approved an amendment to the defense appropriations bill that immunizes drug makers from accountability to the public when they sell dangerous drugs and other products.
"When Senators can...
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