News

2010

September

03

• Don't automatically refuse extra rental car insurance coverage. For years, travel and financial experts have been urging us to avoid it, calling it a rip-off, a scam, a way for car rental companies to prop up their profits by preying on our fears.…

• Employers push costs for health on workers. As health care costs continue their relentless climb, companies are increasingly passing on higher premium costs to workers. The shift is occurring, policy analysts and others say, as employers feel more pressure from the weak…

02

• California's safety-net health insurance premiums rise. As state leaders blast giant health insurers for raising rates, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration has quietly allowed hefty increases for thousands of sick or jobless Californians who must rely on expensive safety-net coverage -- if…

August

31

• Be skeptical of health-care credit cards. These days, you may leave your dentist's office with more than a toothbrush and dental floss in your bag. Thousands of dentists are offering patients health-care credit cards to cover the work that needs to…

26

• Quest for the perfect credit score. A major league pitcher dreams of throwing a perfect game. High schoolers eyeing the Ivy League study furiously in hopes of earning 2400 on the SAT. Meanwhile, Chris Peplinski is pursuing his own brand of…

24

• The customer always comes last. The credit card industry is working hard to subvert the Credit Card Act of 2009, which banned many of the industry’s most predatory practices. The Federal Reserve Board, which oversees and coddles this industry, needs…

20

• A health insurance lesson for students. Unless your soon-to-be-roommate mentioned on Facebook that she has a mysterious and potentially contagious rash, you probably haven't given much thought to what you'll do for health insurance when you start college this fall. But…

• Fatalies on the job fell in 2009. The total number of fatal workplace injuries fell by 17 percent last year, to 4,340, down from 5,214 in 2008, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Thursday. The bureau said that the 2009 total…

• Health premiums shrink wages. Workers will pay more for their health care next year as U.S. companies prepare for provisions of the overhaul signed into law by President Barack Obama, according to a survey released today. About 63 percent…

18

• Consumer Action forms editorial content partnership with Insure.com. Consumer Action today announces that it has partnered with online insurance portal Insure.com to use select examples of its original educational content and feature articles on Consumer Action’s website. The educational content also appears on…

• COBRA ends; insurance bill increases. Jennifer Richards of Park Ridge, Ill., is angry that her family's monthly health insurance bill tripled in August to $1,250 after her husband lost his job and health benefits. But as bad as that is,…

16

• See the future of primary care. About 65 million Americans live in communities with a shortage of primary care doctors, physicians trained to meet the majority of patients' health care needs over the course of their lives. How much more difficult…

15

• New flood boundaries, higher premiums. One day your house is outside a hazardous flood plain - and the next day it's in, potentially costing you hundreds of dollars a year in higher insurance premiums. Or vice versa. And it's all…

13

• Insurance regulators face tough balancing act. A few months into a new job as a contract engineer, Jim Arey was stunned by an $8,000 bill he received for two doctor-administered infusions of an expensive drug he needs regularly. That's when the…

• Elizabeth Warren: poised to become borrower's best friend. Somewhere along the line, Elizabeth Warren became a symbol. She's either the plain-spoken, supremely smart crusader for middle-class families that her supporters adore, or she's the power-hungry headline seeker her critics loathe, a fiery zealot…

12

• Groups shed light on health care law. True or false: The new health care law will cut Medicare benefits for seniors. It will slash Medicare payments to doctors. It will ration health care. In three polls conducted last month, large percentages of…

11

• Travel surgeries: One way to cut health care costs. Tina Follett and her husband Patrick are in Panama on a two-week all-expenses paid trip. But Tina isn't on vacation. She's there to get surgery. The Folletts are among a growing number of Americans whose…

10

• NY AG probes health care credit cards. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo expanded his health-care credit card probe, which has included subpoenas to JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Chase Health Advance, Citigroup Inc.’s Citi Health and CareCredit, a division of General Electric…

• Uninhabited or rented homes get different insurance coverage. n many neighborhoods around the country, "for sale" signs outnumber telephone poles, and some of those signs are looking awfully weather-beaten. Even owners of oceanfront properties are having trouble finding buyers, at least at a…

09

• Angry customers venting online. You've been cheated or mistreated by a business, and no one from the company seems to care. Now what? Thousands of jilted consumers have turned to complaint websites, where they anonymously share with the Internet…