News & Headlines

• March 11, 2010 Insurers test health plans that stress patient choice
• March 11, 2010 Employers to shift more health-care costs
• March 08, 2010 How would health care overhaul help young people?
• February 24, 2010 At FDIC, bracing for a wave of failures
• February 23, 2010 Obama offers new health-care reform proposal

Publications

CA News & Special Reports

Insurance Issue [Fall 2008] In the Fall 2008 issue, Consumer Action focuses on insurance. The results of an online poll reveal details about consumers and insurance coverage, including the downsides to filing a claim. Other topics include credit car rental car coverage, how to add "riders" to policies, the… ( Wednesday, November 12, 2008 )

On Our Radar

• February 05, 2009 FDIC study: Serving the unbanked and underbanked In the first national survey of banks' efforts to serve unbanked and underbanked individuals and families in their market areas, the FDIC found that improvement may be possible in certain areas.
• November 19, 2008 Call to Action: Health Care Reform 2009 Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), chair of the key U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, has issued a detailed "white paper" on insurance-based health care reform. It includes public and private plan options and directives to limit "out of pocket" costs for patients.
• November 27, 2007 The Arbitration Trap: Credit Cards Companies Ensnare Consumers Consumers who seek justice in disputes with their credit card companies shouldn’t expect to find it in binding mandatory arbitration (BMA); in cases decided in California by a major arbitration firm over a four-year period, consumers lost 94 percent of the time, according to a new Public Citizen report .

Coalition

• June 16, 2009 Financial reform coalition tackles big issues A new financial reform coalition, Americans for Financial Reform, has been launched. Consumer Action is a part of this coalition.
• May 02, 2008 E-Prescribing legislation must include privacy protection In conjunction with its Patient Privacy Coalition partners, Consumer Action asked Senators Baucus and Grassley, Representatives Rangel, McCrery, Dingell and Barton to include a privacy provision in any e-prescribing legislation before them.
• March 11, 2008 Project aims to protect personal health information Consumer Action Privacy Coalition partner, the Center for Democracy & Technology, has launched a major program in collaboration with the Health Privacy Project to develop and promote privacy policy solutions for personal health information. The project hopes to deliver developments in health information technology (HIT) that have the potential to improve health care quality, reduce costs and empower consumers to play a greater role in their own care.
• February 13, 2008 Patient control of health data Consumer Action joined the Coalition for Patient Privacy to support HR 5442, authored by Congressman Ed Markey, which would give Americans stronger rights to to protect their most sensitive information on earth, their health records.
• June 29, 2006 Consumer Coalition for Health Privacy The mission of the Consumer Coalition for Health Privacy* — organized by the Health Privacy Project — is to educate and empower healthcare consumers to have a prominent and informed voice on health privacy issues at the federal, state, and local levels.

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