Health Care Reform
CFC strongly supports healthcare for all with SB 562
CFC strongly supports SB 562 (Lara), which will ensure every Californian has access to medical care–essentially, Medicare for All. SB 562 would create a true single-payer health program and cost control system. It would eliminate uncontrollable co-pays, high deductibles, and reduce insurance company waste and duplication. Our … Read More ›
Preventable Deaths and Other ‘Adverse Events’ in Hospitals: News Reports on the Problem Include Murky Official Data
“Hospitals in California have reported 6,282 adverse events to the state in the last four fiscal years. They range from ‘death associated with an error,’ to ‘stage 3 or 4 decubitus ulcer,’ or bedsores,” the NBC Bay Area Investigative Team reported. Sacramento ABC affiliate News10’s own investigation yielded similar findings. Read More ›
Sen. Boxer and Mothers of Children Killed by Medical Malpractice Speak Out for Prop. 46
U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer held a press conference at the Consumer Federation of California’s San Francisco office last week. She was joined by five mothers with anguished stories of medical malpractice that took the lives of their children – and hopeful news about how voters can help … Read More ›
Boxer Joins Mothers Who Lost Children to Medical Malpractice to Call for Voters’ Support for Prop 46
“Preventable medical errors [are] now the third leading cause of death. Only heart disease and cancer take more lives,” Sen. Barbara Boxer says in a television ad released at a press conference in the Consumer Federation of California’s San Francisco office. Her call for voters to support the patient safety protections in Proposition 46 was echoed by mothers who lost children to medical negligence and explained how they have been denied access to justice because the value of their children’s lives under the law has been capped at $250,000 since 1975 and never adjusted. Read More ›
SB 1256: Brown Signs Curb On Medical Credit Scams
Health care patients would no longer be subject to exorbitant third-party credit charges arranged without their full knowledge and informed consent under a Consumer Federation of California-sponsored bill that passed a unanimous state Senate floor vote on Thursday, May 15, 2014. Read More ›
Electronic health records ripe for theft
by David Pittman, Politico
On the black market, a full identity profile contained in a single record can bring as much as $500. Nearly 1.84 million people have been victims of medical identity theft, according to a report released last year, including 313,000 victims in 2013 — a 19 percent jump from the previous year. Since the Department of Health and Human Services began tracking the numbers in 2009, more than 31.6 million individuals — roughly 1 in 10 people in the U.S. — have had their medical records exposed through some sort of hack. Read More ›
U.S. Health Care System Has $5.6 Billion Security Problem
by Herb Weisbaum, NBC News
Health-care organizations are under attack. A recent survey found the overall number of reported data breaches at health-care organizations declined slightly last year, but criminal attacks on health-care providers increased dramatically — up 100 percent since 2010. Read More ›
Blue Shield of California rate hike is excessive, regulator says
by Chad Terhune, Los Angeles Times
California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones criticized Blue Shield of California for an “unreasonable” rate hike affecting about 81,000 individual policyholders. Jones said the insurer’s 10% average increase was excessive, amounting to an average increase of 32% over a two-year period.
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Insurers are renegotiating contracts, narrowing networks under ACA
by Pauline Bartolone, NPR
When Diane Shore got a letter that her health policy would be canceled, the small premium increase for the new plan didn’t bother her that much. But the changes in her choices for care really bugged her. “My physicians will no longer be in this network of physicians, or the hospitals,” she says. Read More ›
Health measures to dominate 2014 voter ballot
by Marc Lifsher, Los Angeles Times
A ballot teeming with health measures next November may prompt hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign spending. Read More ›
Kamala Harris shutters 10 fake Covered California websites
by Christopher Cadelago, Sacramento Bee
“These websites fraudulently imitated Covered California in order to lure consumers away from plans that provide the benefits of the Affordable Care Act,” Harris said in a prepared statement. “My office will continue to investigate and shut down these kinds of sites…” Read More ›
Blue Shield gives California policyholders three-month reprieve
by Christopher Cadelago, Sacramento Bee
Roughly 113,000 Californians whose individual health plans were set to expire at the end of the year will be given the option to extend their coverage though the end of March. Read More ›
In California, hundreds of thousands to pay more for health insurance
by Christopher Cadelago, Sacramento Bee
Hundreds of thousands of Californians who purchase their own health insurance are bracing to pay more for their plans, as the cost of the federal health care overhaul lands harder on middle-class customers. Read More ›