Recent
News Release
4/4/2013
Carmen Balber & Jamie Court
Santa Monica, CA – The former CEO of Wellpoint, Angela Braly, was paid $20 million after resigning under pressure last year, news that broke the day after the insurer’s California subsidiary, Anthem Blue Cross, was taken to task for raising rates unreasonably for thousands of California small businesses.
The development highlights the need for public scrutiny of health...
News Release
4/2/2013
Doug Heller & Carmen Balber
Santa Monica, CA –Anthem Blue Cross is again imposing an unreasonable rate increase on its small business customers, and California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones announced today that the company will not budge on this excessive rate hike.
Working with an independent actuary, the nonprofit, nonpartisan Consumer Watchdog analyzed the data in Anthem’s rate filing and found the...
News Release
3/7/2013
Carmen Balber
Washington, DC and Santa Monica, CA – Blue Shield of California will impose an unreasonable rate hike as high as 19.9% on 268,000 Californians because the state’s insurance commissioner does not have the power to reject unjustified health insurance premiums. Senator Dianne Feinstein and Representative Jan Schakowsky introduced legislation Wednesday to close a loophole in federal...
Blog Post
6/29/2012
By Jamie Court
The finish line has moved forward, but our cause has become even more crucial.
You probably know that the Supreme Court upheld vital consumer protections but also ruled that all Californians will have to buy health insurance. Yesterday was also the deadline for county election officials in California to certify that we had enough valid signatures to put our ballot initiative to force health...
Blog Post
5/31/2012
Judy Dugan
Thursday's reports that some Californians will get rebates on their health insurance premiums are a little bit of good news--but not nearly as good as it could be.
An L.A. Times story reports that California small businesses and their employees who are insured by United Health Group will get rebates averaging $98 on last year's premiums because United Health didn't spend at...
Blog Post
5/24/2012
Judy Dugan
Wow. People really don't like insurance companies or their overpaid CEOs.
Our news release Wednesday, and a similar message to our mailing list, cheered the pending departure of Blue Shield CEO Bruce Bodaken. We included a rundown of how he treated his customers in the last few years: A rate increase proposal of up to 86% in a year. A corporate stash of $3.2 billion in excessive reserves...
News Release
4/4/2013
Carmen Balber & Jamie Court
Santa Monica, CA – The former CEO of Wellpoint, Angela Braly, was paid $20 million after resigning under pressure last year, news that broke the day after the insurer’s California subsidiary, Anthem Blue Cross, was taken to task for raising rates unreasonably for thousands of California small businesses.
The development highlights the need for public scrutiny of health...
News Release
4/2/2013
Doug Heller & Carmen Balber
Santa Monica, CA –Anthem Blue Cross is again imposing an unreasonable rate increase on its small business customers, and California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones announced today that the company will not budge on this excessive rate hike.
Working with an independent actuary, the nonprofit, nonpartisan Consumer Watchdog analyzed the data in Anthem’s rate filing and found the...
News Release
3/7/2013
Carmen Balber
Washington, DC and Santa Monica, CA – Blue Shield of California will impose an unreasonable rate hike as high as 19.9% on 268,000 Californians because the state’s insurance commissioner does not have the power to reject unjustified health insurance premiums. Senator Dianne Feinstein and Representative Jan Schakowsky introduced legislation Wednesday to close a loophole in federal...
News Story
4/4/2013
By Lisa Aliferis, THE CALIFORNIA REPORT
California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones has irritated the insurance industry and surprised public-policy analysts by hiring Consumer Watchdog, a vocal insurance industry critic, to assist in reviewing health insurance rate increases, the Los Angeles Times reports.
In a one-year contract worth up to $88,000, Consumer Watchdog will supplement the rate review process already done by the...
News Story
3/27/2013
By Michael Hiltzik, LOS ANGELES TIMES
While most of us face uncertainty with the rollout of healthcare reform, some insurance companies in California have been feeling their oats lately. Here's how they're responding to Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones' warnings that their latest rate increases are unreasonable: Stuff it, Dave.
That essentially was the response of Blue Shield of California and Anthem Blue Cross after...
News Story
3/24/2013
By Larry N. Gerston, SACRAMENTO BEE
"There you go again." That famous phrase was uttered in a debate by presidential candidate Ronald Reagan in response to his perceptions of incumbent Jimmy Carter's mischaracterizations. More than 30 years later, it can just as easily be applied to the latest round of health insurance increases by California companies.
Once again, insurance companies are implementing egregious...
Video
12/5/2012
Health insurance companies - including Anthem Blue Cross, Aetna, Kaiser, Health Net and United HealthCare - are raising rates by double digits AGAIN. The difference this time is that we can make them pay us back with a refund! Please watch this one minute video and join us in getting a refund of our excessive premium dollars.
Video
5/21/2012
Fed up with the endless rate hikes health insurers in California impose on them, over 800,000 Californians signed the petition to put a proposition on the November ballot that would force health insurers to publicly justify their rate hikes and seek approval from the state insurance commissioner before they can take effect.
Video
5/19/2012
Consumer Watchdog's Harvey Rosenfield and Jamie Court join with other consumer advocates and the State's Insurance Commissioner, Dave Jones, to turn in the quarter million signatures collected in LA County. These signatures - counting over 800,000 state-wide - will allow voters to decide next November if health insurers should have to publicly justify their rate hikes before they can take...
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