Pacific Daily News (Hagatna, Guam) - April 15, 2006

Forget liability caps, focus on accreditation

Insurance companies set premium rates based on the stock market, not caps. When the market is bad and investment returns are low, insurance companies cover their losses by increasing premiums, but rarely reduce them when the market improves. A report published by the Foundation for Taxpayers and Consumer Rights evaluated how the caps system worked in California. It stated that despite introducing a caps system called MICRA (Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act) in 1975, premium rates showed a 450-percent increase in the 13 years following its enactment....read more

The Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York) - January 9, 2006

Study: Malpractice insurers inflated losses to raise rates

Medical malpractice insurance companies consistently inflated the amount they estimated they would pay out in claims between 1986 and 1994, then used the inflated figures to justify enormous increases in doctors' premiums, according to a study by the nonprofit Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights....read more

Belleville News-Democrat (Illinois) - January 1, 2006

Doctor insurer's rates and perks up;

Big bonuses alleged for top executives
Goyal's charges foreshadowed conclusions reached in a report issued Friday by the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, of Santa Monica, Calif. The group describes itself as a non-profit consumer education and advocacy organization. The report, titled "False Accounting," accuses medical malpractice insurers nationwide of exaggerating the amounts paid out in claims as part of a campaign to justify high rate increases....read more

The Washington Post - December 29, 2005

Calculating Malpractice Claims;

Study by Consumers Group Suggests Insurers Set Premiums Based on Market, Not Their Losses
The study, by the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, a Santa Monica, Calif., advocacy group, found that from 1986 to 1994 the industry reported to regulators losses of $39.6 billion but actually paid only $26.7 billion, 31 percent less. The losses were overstated in each of the nine years....read more

The New York Times - December 20, 2005

Legal Shield for Vaccine Makers Is Inserted Into Military Bill

An outside advocacy group, the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, said the provision posed a conflict of interest for Mr. Frist and 41 other senators who, it said, own as much as $16 million in pharmaceutical stock. A spokeswoman for the group, Carmen Balber, called the provision ''a giveaway deal that half the Senate cannot ethically participate in.''...read more

Newhouse News Service - December 20, 2005

Congress Poised to Shield Makers of Bird Flu Vaccine

Some critics take particular aim at Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., for helping to attach the bird flu measure to a must-pass military spending bill late Sunday night. The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights maintains Frist is among members of Congress who should not vote on the provision because of conflicts of interest. Frist is one of 42 senators who together owned at least $8.1 million in pharmaceutical company stock in 2004, according to the group's analysis of public financial disclosure documents filed with the Senate....read more

The Tennessean (Nashville, Tennessee) - December 4, 2005

Frist votes aid HCA's business interests;

Review of 10 years in Senate shows pattern of favoring firm
Frist has said he gave the order this summer to sell his shares in HCA to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, but Carmen Balber, a consumer advocate with the California-based Foundation for Taxpayer & Consumer Rights, said Frist's decision failed to ease her concerns. She said, "The senator is incapable of totally erasing his ties to that company because his father and brother founded it and because the family fortune is tied up in HCA stock."...read more

The Washington Post - October 24, 2005

Letters Show Frist Notified Of Stocks in 'Blind' Trusts;

Documents Contradict Comments on Holdings
Two watchdog organizations -- Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights -- filed complaints with the Senate Select Committee on Ethics this year charging Frist with having a conflict of interest and questioning why he sold his shares after a decade of saying he did not need to....read more

Los Angeles Times - October 23, 2005

How Many Doctors Should Be Blamed?;

A mother whose daughter died after Kaiser physicians missed her cancer is fighting to change a law that let the HMO report only one of the practitioners to the state.
Some are not reassured by this. "The medical board hasn't had a great record of being aggressive about consumer complaints," said Jerry Flanagan of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, a Santa Monica advocacy group active on health issues. "There's a sense the Medical Board is too close to physicians."...read more

Chattanooga Times Free Press (Tennessee) - October 1, 2005

GOP says Frist stock sale OK, but others disagree

Carmen Balber, with the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, said the regulations are too lax and should not be policed by fellow senators. "Blind trusts need stricter rules," Ms. Balber said. "They have a lot of loopholes. Partisanship could overshadow a significant investigation."...read more