July 2, 2009 by Maureen Backman
Say you bought a car in 2001 – a Volkswagon, for example. Let’s also say that you thoroughly read your car’s warranty detailing what type of gasoline to use. Filling up the pump shouldn’t be a big deal, right?
Wrong – if the ethanol industry gets its way.
Growth Energy, an ethanol trade association, petitioned the E.P.A. back in March to increase the allowable amount of ethanol in gasoline from 10 percent (10E) to 15 percent (15E). The group, co-chaired by former Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark, claims this increase would be harmless, resulting in cleaner air and posing no risks to vehicle engines.
But, Growth Energy’s proposal is anything but harmless. Continue Reading »
Posted in Activism, Auto Safety, Climate Change, Energy | Tagged Activism, Climate Change, Energy, Environment, EPA, ethanol, gasoline, ozone, Public Citizen | Leave a Comment »
July 1, 2009 by Linda Kurtz
Yesterday, President Obama submitted his proposal to create a new consumer protection agency to Congress—and it’s already stirring up a debate.
First, take a look at some of the functions of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CPFA), as outlined by the Associated Press:
- oversee products used by consumers such as mortgages, credit cards, payday loans and terms on savings accounts;
- be in charge of implementing a law passed by Congress this spring that protects consumers from sudden interest rate increases on unpaid credit card balances;
- be required to police the market continuously and publish its findings once a year; and
- consist of a five-member board, with four members nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The fifth member would be the director of the new National Bank Supervisor, a proposed merged agency to create to take over bank regulation duties.
We think the president’s proposal to create a new CFPA will add much needed oversight of an industry that has run wild at great expense to consumers and homeowners. The current lack of oversight and regulation, along with Wall Street’s unchecked greed, drove this country into its current financial crisis. Americans deserve an agency that will put their financial well-being ahead of the short-term profits of a few Wall Street banks. Continue Reading »
Posted in Congress, Consumer Protection | Tagged Consumer Financial Protection Agency, financial reform | Leave a Comment »
July 1, 2009 by Rick Claypool
That’s how Public Citizen’s Craig Holman characterized the push back against President Obama’s Federal Election Commission (FEC) pick by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) in a Politico story today. “[I]t’s good to see McCain and Feingold working together again on the campaign finance front,” said Holman in the story.
Politico reports:
[Holman] and other campaign finance reformers had worked closely for years with McCain on campaign finance matters until the senator began distancing himself from them in the run-up to his presidential campaign as he courted the GOP base. It considers restrictions on political spending to be a violation of free speech. Continue Reading »
Posted in Campaign Finance | Tagged Campaign Finance, fec, mccain | Leave a Comment »
June 29, 2009 by Rick Claypool
…then you’ll love George Will’s insight on what to do about the health care crisis in today’s Washington Post!
Honestly, it’s amazing to me how these folks think sometimes. What does Will propose? Why, blind faith in the market’s invisible hand, of course.
Apparently, it looks to Will like distributing health care to everyone is just too darn hard. So let’s just not try – and then – ta-da! – we’ll “ration” health care only to those who are able to pay for it. Just like we already do right now – except, instead of calling health care costs outrageous, insidious and murderous, we’ll call these costs “rational,” Because, according to Will, “[P]rices produce a rational allocation of scarce resources.” Continue Reading »
Posted in Health | Tagged insurance industry, single-payer | 2 Comments »
June 26, 2009 by Linda Kurtz
As has been the norm of late, Public Citizen has been very busy over the past week advocating for safe drugs, doctor accountability, and comprehensive trade legislation. Testifying in front of Congress and the FDA is only part of what we’ve done. Check out these news highlights.
An Associated Press story picked up by newspapers all over the country tells of a contact lens solution that caused eye infections and, in some cases, even blindness. Even though consumers complained, the problems went unreported by the solution maker for over a year. Dr. Peter Lurie, deputy director of our Health Research Group, weighed in on the issue. Dr. Lurie also voiced his concern about “off-label” uses of botulinum toxin products as news of a Botox alternative, Dysport, emerged.
ABC News caught up with our hospital report this past weekend, featuring it and Dr. Sidney Wolfe, our acting president and director of our Health Research Group, on ABC World News with Charles Gibson. Their segment features Dr. Robert Ricketson, a surgeon who used a screwdriver instead of titanium rod during a back surgery. Three corrective surgeries later, his patient was left bedridden, paralyzed from the waist down. The catch? Dr. Ricketson lost his medical license in Oklahoma and Texas, but found a job in Hawaii because his previous employers had not reported negligence.
Most recently, Reuters wrote about mounting pressure on President Obama to enact new trade legislation. As over 100 lawmakers called Wednesday for such a change, Bill Holland, deputy director for our Global Trade Watch, speaks of our support for the new Trade Act, as it’s been called.
Flickr photo from Michele Catania.
Posted in Consumer Protection, Health, Trade, Uncategorized | Tagged hospital report, Peter Lurie, Trade Act | Leave a Comment »
June 26, 2009 by Rick Claypool
As the debates surrounding climate change, trade and health care legislation heat up on Capitol Hill, Public Citizen has been busy urging lawmakers to craft bills that truly benefit the public. News highlights below.
Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen’s Energy Program, was quoted in a Reuters story on the “cap-and-trade” climate legislation that is fast approaching a House vote. Slocum spoke on the weakened bill, expressing doubts on the measure’s ability, in its current form, to benefit low-income energy consumers: “Language tailored to retail rate payers was absent any sort of specific language that set aside a certain amount of benefits for household ratepayers… we’re not satisfied with the way the current language is structured,” he said. Continue Reading »
Posted in Congress, Energy, Health, Trade | Tagged Congress, Energy, fair trade, Health | Leave a Comment »
June 25, 2009 by Linda Kurtz
Karl Rove, former senior advisor to President George W. Bush, published a column today in the Wall Street Journal. The article, entitled “ObamaCare Isn’t Inevitable,” derides President Obama’s ideas of a public option for health insurance and blames the inability of Congress to put together health care reform on the American people.
Citing a Resurgent Republic (a group he calls a “nonprofit, right-of-center education organization” whose creation he assisted with) poll released Tuesday, Rove declares that “by a 60%-to-31% margin, Americans prefer getting their health coverage through private insurance rather than the federal government.”
Hold on, Mr. Rove. A New York Times/CBS News poll was released on Saturday, and its findings are a bit different:
The national telephone survey…found that 72 percent of those questioned supported a government-administered insurance plan — something like Medicare for those under 65 — that would compete for customers with private insurers…The proposal received broad bipartisan backing, with half of those who call themselves Republicans saying they would support a public plan, along with nearly three-fourths of independents and almost nine in 10 Democrats.
So if it has such broad support, why hasn’t health care reform made much progress since it began a little less than a month ago? The answer: lobbyists. Remember how the American Medical Association (AMA) told Congress it “does not believe creating a public health insurance option… is the best way to expand health insurance coverage and lower costs”? Well since the 2000 election cycle, its political action committee has contributed $9.8 million to Congressional candidates.
This weekend, Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus is taking a break from health care reform to hold a fundraiser, where lobbyists can pay thousands to hang out with the senator. Our own Craig Holman, Public Citizen’s Legislative Representative, recently told CQ Politics:
It’s unseemly to be doing this just before the markup [of Baucus’ draft health care bill]…This kind of schmoozing of lawmakers clearly buys influence.
When the AMA, insurers and pharmaceutical companies get involved, they are going to look out for the best interests of those they represent, and that isn’t the American people.
Posted in Congress, Health | Tagged Craig Holman, health reform | Leave a Comment »
June 24, 2009 by Linda Kurtz
We’ve said it again and again: Congress cannot exclude single-payer advocates from the debate on health care reform. At meetings and rallies around the country, Americans have demanded to know why Congress has not considered single-payer, the most popular health reform proposal around. On June 11, Dr. Margaret Flowers of Physicians for a National Health Program testified before the full Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions – the first time all year someone advancing single-payer had been allowed to participate in the Senate discussion of health care reform.
At the time, we said Dr. Flowers’ testimony wasn’t enough. A great deal of misinformation was still floating out there about single-payer that Congress had not yet addressed. But today, our own Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of Public Citizen’s Health Research group and our acting president, was invited to testify in front of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce about the single-payer option. Continue Reading »
Posted in Health | Tagged health reform, Sid Wolfe, single-payer | Leave a Comment »
June 24, 2009 by Linda Kurtz
A few weeks ago, the Food and Drug Administration announced a new internal task force that would examine how the agency can become more transparent. The group would seek suggestions from employees, stakeholders and the public in an effort to reach the best conclusions about how the FDA could become more accessible. (For an overview of what the FDA does and does not regulate, see this Time article.)
Sure enough, the FDA has lived up to its promise. Today, Public Citizen’s own Dr. Peter Lurie, deputy director of our Health Research Group, is representing American consumers with testimony before the task force. While current FDA procedures favor secrecy so that drug companies can keep competitors in the dark about products being developed, Dr. Lurie will make three recommendations before the task force that will allow the FDA to become more open to the public.
First, Dr. Lurie will recommend that pre-approval documents should be made available to the public. This will prevent scientists from researching products similar to those that, unbeknownst to them, prior research has deemed unsafe, squandering time and money going down roads already proved to be dead ends. In addition, making this information public can save clinical trial participants from being put at needless risk by enrolling them in research likely to prove fruitless. Continue Reading »
Posted in Consumer Protection, Health, Pharmaceuticals | Tagged Dr. Peter Lurie, FDA, testimony, Transparency | Leave a Comment »
June 22, 2009 by Linda Kurtz
Remember the report we issued on May 27 that outlined the failures of hospitals to report and discipline poor doctors? Well so do Charlie Gibson and ABC News because they covered our findings last night.
Watch the video here.
Our report found that nearly 50 percent of all hospitals in the United States failed to submit a single report to the National Practitioner Databank since its creation in 1990. The Databank was created to keep track of bad doctors by listing any practitioner who had their admitting privileges revoked or suspended for 31 days or more. That way, a hospital could easily check any doctor’s background before hiring him or her.
But this system has failed the very people it was trying to protect. Hospitals routinely exploit loopholes to avoid government requirements, such as the need to report to the Databank. Continue Reading »
Posted in Consumer Protection, Health | Tagged doctors, Health, hospital report | Leave a Comment »
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