Jamie Court
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Jamie Court is an award-winning and nationally recognized consumer
advocate. He is president of Consumer Watchdog, which has offices in Washington, DC and Los Angeles. His latest book, The Progressive's Guide To Raising Hell: How To Win Grassroots Campaigns, Pass Ballot Box Laws And Get The Change You Voted For, was published in September by Chelsea Green.


Court is an early pioneer the HMO patients' rights movement in America and has led successful corporate and political campaigns to reform HMOs, insurers, banks, oil companies, drug makers, and utilities.

Court is the author of Corporateering: How Corporate Power Steals Your
Personal Freedom And What You Can Do About It
(Tarcher/Putnam, June 2003) -- which Publisher's Weekly says is "keeping the muckraking tradition alive" and the Los Angeles Times calls "eye opening...crisply written and lucidly
argued." (corporateering.org) He is also co-author of Making A Killing: HMOs and the Threat To Your Health (http://www.makingakilling.org)


The Los Angeles Times calls Court "a tireless consumer advocate." The Wall
Street Journal says, "He's notorious for his dramatic, sharp-tongued attacks
on the health- and auto-insurance industries, and on any politician who
takes their campaign cash."


Court helped to pioneer the HMO patients' rights movement in the United
States, sponsoring successful laws in California and aiding them elsewhere.
Court's commentaries can be heard on "Marketplace" on National Public Radio and can be read in the Los Angeles Times and
other California newspapers (http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/ftcr/co/) He often appears on major national television and radio news shows.


Court has also worked as an advocate for the homeless and as a community
organizer. He has a BA in American and European History from Pomona College.http://www.consumerwatchdog.org

Blog Entries by Jamie Court

The Marie Antoinette of Health Insurance and How to Dethrone Her

(0) Comments | Posted May 7, 2012 | 4:25 PM

The Marie Antoinette of Health Insurance

Two years ago, as federal health reform lay on death's door, CEO Angela Braly, head of Blue Cross' parent company Wellpoint, spit on beleaguered patients. She sat through poignant Congressional testimony from...

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The Preview Health Insurance Executives Don't Want You to See

(4) Comments | Posted May 2, 2012 | 2:12 PM

Starting this week one million Californians will pay hundreds of millions of dollars more for their health insurance. It's a plot right out of Groundhog Day, only it happens every Spring, Winter, Summer and Fall.

Health insurance rates in California are like a runaway train and there's no police force...

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Will Patients Beat Blue Shield Again... This Time With the First Online Ballot Petition for Rate Regulation?

(3) Comments | Posted February 8, 2012 | 6:48 AM

Shouldn't the CEOs of health insurance companies like Blue Shield have to sign under penalty of perjury that their rate hikes are justified? If the first online signature gathering for a ballot petition is successful, Californians will vote on that proposition in November, and are almost sure to...

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Will Carmakers' Super Bowl 'Miles Per Gallon' Claims Continue to Be Super Bull?

(3) Comments | Posted February 5, 2012 | 12:35 PM

Last week an upset Honda Civic Hybrid owner won a $9,000 small claims victory against Honda for widely misrepresenting the miles per gallon on her Civic. Hyundai told my group Consumer Watchdog Thursday it would not advertise its 40 miles per gallon claim about the Elantra in its Super Bowl...

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Google Busted Steering Users, Antitrust Cops Sure to Call

(0) Comments | Posted January 23, 2012 | 1:43 PM

It's been a big day for those of us who have been making the case that Google steers users not to the most relevant products and services, but to its own services.  This morning in Brussels, Consumer Watchdog called upon European privacy officials to investigate such antitrust issues, including...

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Obama's Dare to SCOTUS Could Screw Patients & Help Insurers

(22) Comments | Posted October 21, 2011 | 2:05 PM

In a remarkable act of either stupidity or brinksmanship, the Obama Administration challenged the US Supreme Court to either keep the federal individual mandate to buy health insurance or throw out with it some of the most important consumer protections in the federal health care overhaul.

The Justice...

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Jerry Brown Sends Birthday Present to the 99% on 100th Anniversary of Ballot Initiative Process

(26) Comments | Posted October 10, 2011 | 8:39 AM

With a simple signature, California Governor Jerry Brown has struck a blow for populism in the ballot initiative process by signing a new law to clarify that all ballot initiatives be voted on in November, when twice the number of voters show up, rather than in primary elections.

This week...

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Last Call in Sacramento for 2011. Will Gov. Brown Make Ballot Initiatives Simpler?

(2) Comments | Posted September 10, 2011 | 9:05 AM

The clock ticking down on the last night in the California statehouse is always a lot like waiting for last call at a rowdy bar around 2 AM -- you wonder how much damage will done before the last shot.

For years my colleagues and I have stood watch on...

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Facebook Money? Will the Feds Stop Facebook's Power Play For Online Currency?

(33) Comments | Posted June 29, 2011 | 11:15 AM

2011-06-29-1DollarBillFaceBook.jpg


If Facebook's new facial recognition software isn't scary enough, imagine Mark Zuckerberg's face replacing George Washington's on the dollar bill. Or rubbing out all the dead presidents on every bit of American currency.

July 4th may be Independence Day for America, but...

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Why Are Google's CEOs Afraid of Congress?

(11) Comments | Posted June 22, 2011 | 2:25 PM

No CEO ever likes to testify before Congress, but Google's CEOs, past (Eric Schmidt) and present (founder Larry Page), are going so far out of their way to avoid testifying in Congress that they are begging for a subpoena.

Bloomberg is...

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Schwarzenegger Achieves "Post Partisanship" in New Opinion Poll

(4) Comments | Posted June 20, 2011 | 10:38 AM

The quote of the month goes to Mark DiCamillo, director of the Field Poll, which is out with a poll that shows Arnold Schwarzenegger with a 75% disapproval rating among voters and with 90% of Los Angeles residents rejecting him.

DiCamillo told the San Francisco Chronicle: ...

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California Democratic Lawmakers Revive Schwarzenegger Scam To Sell Off Historic State Properties in Order to Save Their Pay

(9) Comments | Posted June 15, 2011 | 4:10 PM

Today California’s Democratic state lawmakers announced a budget plan to keep their paychecks coming that included one of the worst ideas Arnold Schwarzenegger had since impregnating his kids’ nanny.

If lawmakers don’t...

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Do-Not-Track-Online Goes On National Map With Rockefeller Bill

(7) Comments | Posted May 9, 2011 | 5:34 PM

U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller did the American people a great favor today by introducing the Do-Not-Track-Online Act of 2011.

iPhone and Android users should not have to worry about being spied on by their smart phones. We should be able to say no to Google and...

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Will the President Gridlock West LA as Prelude to Earth Day? He Should Read the Gas Station Signs

(20) Comments | Posted April 21, 2011 | 8:17 AM

The email warnings are flying in West Los Angeles about how the President's motorcade will once again gridlock afternoon rush hour. The cause: two mistimed, ill-placed Hollywood fundraisers on opposite sides of the traffic jam known as West LA.

There's probably no major city as pro-Obama as Los...

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What's Causing the Gas Hole in Your Wallet? You've Got to See This Movie

(87) Comments | Posted April 14, 2011 | 10:17 AM

If you want to know why we're really paying over $4 per gallon for gasoline, and there appears to be no end in sight, the film Gas Hole lays it all out for anyone who wants to know the history of the pain at the pump.

The...

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Google CEO for Commerce Secretary? A Bad Idea

(3) Comments | Posted March 30, 2011 | 9:37 AM

The strong buzz in Washington, DC is that Google CEO Eric Schmidt is President Obama's top choice for Commerce Secretary and an appointment is coming soon. The CEO who made billions collecting our personal information online and serving us up to advertisers, the guy who created online privacy...

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Speculators & Oil Companies Are to Blame for Gas Prices, Not the Middle East

(68) Comments | Posted March 8, 2011 | 3:39 PM

While skirmishes in Libya and uncertainty in the Middle East are nice cover for outrageous gasoline prices, the fact is the same old suspects are making a killing from sky-high gas prices approaching $4 dollars per gallon in California: big oil companies and greedy speculators.

The speculative market may...

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Will Google Maps New Street View Tricycles Take Pictures of Our Kids' Playground?

(13) Comments | Posted March 2, 2011 | 2:06 PM

Should our right to privacy be sacrificed so Google can make billions of dollars off images of us and our things?

Google's grand experiment in photographing the world's places for Google Maps has taken its "street view" cameras off-road with new hi-tech...
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Obama Puts Single Payer and Public Option Back on the Table

(510) Comments | Posted February 28, 2011 | 12:30 PM

At the National Governors Association, President Obama just threw his weight behind a bipartisan effort in the U.S. Senate to allow states to innovate with health reform, including adopting a public insurance system or single payer health care system by 2013 instead of 2017.

The governors embraced the state...

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Our Revolution

(0) Comments | Posted February 15, 2011 | 1:37 PM

The largely peaceful revolution in Cairo and Americans' celebration of it raises the question:

What would it take to mount a peaceful revolution in America against the Wall Street and corporate powerhouses that have turned the government against the best interests of our people?

In America, the corporation is...

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