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Press ReleaseOctober 11, 1999 |
Contact: Betsy Imholz or Harry Snyder |
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - This legislative session featured dramatic successes and disappointing defeats for California consumers. 1999 was a banner year for improving consumer protections in the managed health care industry with the passage of several bills consumer groups have long supported. To a lesser degree, the state also addressed the issue of uninsured drivers, with a pilot program offering low-cost auto insurance policies for qualifying drivers in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Meanwhile, business interests killed or delayed several publicly popular consumer policies. The milk industry watered down a bill that would have ended the ban on retailers selling milk for below their cost, while the fringe banking industry succeeded in delaying a bill that would lower the exorbitant fees and interest rates at payday loan shops.
"This year was certainly an improvement for consumers over previous legislative sessions," said Betsy Imholz, director of the West Coast Regional Office of Consumers Union. "We believe the health care reform measures signed by Governor Davis will truly improve the quality of care Californians receive. In addition, Consumers Union spent more time this year working with legislators to better protect California's consumers, in contrast to previous years spent fighting off attacks to limit consumer protections and rights in many industries."
"Still, obstacles remain," Imholz said. "Special interests are able to weaken or kill popular, consumer-friendly legislation. This is especially so when no other major Capitol financial interest is aligned with the interest of consumers. In both our battles to end the ban on milk sales below cost and to lower the interest rates charged by payday lenders, consumer groups were virtually alone against industries with dramatic legislative muscle."
"Next year, we at Consumers Union will redouble our efforts to address the problem of the seven million Californians without health insurance," Imholz said. "As well, we will renew our work to rein in payday lending costs; lower milk prices; protect children from pesticides in schools; and get the insurance industry to assume community investment responsibility."
[Editor's Note: For a review of the outcome of Consumers Union's priority bills from the 1999 legislative session, click here.]
Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, is an independent, nonprofit testing and information organization, serving only the consumer. We are a comprehensive source of unbiased advice about products and services, personal finance, health, nutrition, and other consumer concerns. Since 1936, our mission has been to test products, inform the public, and protect consumers.
