Group to Challenge Schwarzenegger at Fundraiser with Contribution of 21,200 Jelly Beans

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Group to Challenge Schwarzenegger at Fundraiser with Contribution of 21,200 Jelly Beans; Price Gouged HMO Consumer, Injured Worker to Demand Equal Access to Governor

12/17/03 8:15:00 PM

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To: State and Assignment desks

Contact: Jerry Flanagan of FTCR, 415-497-1710 (cell)

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Dec. 17 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR) will once again join an injured worker and a priced gouged HMO consumer in an attempt to buy their way into a Governor Schwarzenegger fundraiser with a different type of green -- 21,200 green jelly beans -- challenging the Governor's pledge to allow equal access to all.

Donors who give $21,200, which is the maximum individual contribution allowed under state law, will be treated to a private dinner with the Governor at the fundraiser. Two previously scheduled Sacramento fundraisers were reportedly canceled in response to FTCR's widely publicized plans to attend the events and challenge the Governor's pledge to not allow special access to special interests.

The fundraiser, to begin at 6 p.m. tonight, will be held at the Sacramento Sheraton Grand Hotel. FTCR will hold a press conference at 5:30 p.m. outside the entrance to the hotel at the intersection of J and 13th Streets

With the consumer and injured worker, FTCR will call on Gov. Schwarzenegger to regulate health and workers' compensation insurance premiums, to reduce the burden of skyrocketing insurance costs and not undermine consumer protections. Insurance companies and HMOS, which have made large contributions to Schwarzenegger, have opposed such reforms.

"If the governor is to live up to his pledge to not give special preference to special interests, he should listen to average people that don't have $21,200 to burn because they are out of work due to a workplace injury. If this governor is not about just catering to special interest money, he should accept any kind of green from someone with a real problem and give that person equal treatment. Tonight we'll challenge Gov. Schwarzenegger's campaign promise by attempting to buy our way into an exclusive fundraiser with 21,200 green jelly beans," said Jerry Flanagan of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights. "The insurance company executives and big business special interests who attend these events talk with their checkbooks. And, as Schwarzenegger acknowledged on the campaign trail, they will expect to be paid back in special favors. The question that remains to be answered is whether Schwarzenegger has the guts to stand-up to his donors."

At the 5:30 p.m. press conference, an injured worker, Jodi Greggs of Sacramento, will describe attempts by a workers' compensation insurer to limit her medical treatments made necessary by a workplace injury causing permanent disability. Insurers' penalties for such delays are limited under governor Schwarzenegger's workers compensation proposals and insurers' premiums are left unregulated as well. Jon Marcus, a San Francisco HMO, consumer will talk about his 300 percent increase in health insurance costs over the last three years. Both will challenge Schwarzenegger to "regulate insurance company donors, not wine and dine them."

Five years ago, Jodi Greggs, then a 38-year-old Licensed Vocational Nurse, was permanently disabled when helping a 200- pound patient from his bed to his wheelchair. After years of battling her employer's workers' compensation insurance company, Jodi says more must be done to protect workers' rights but is worried that Schwarzenegger will not support necessary regulation of insurance companies because they have contributed money to the Governor.

"I deserve the same opportunity to speak to the Governor as the insurance company executives at tonight's private dinner," said Jodi Greggs. "Schwarzenegger, who spends his time schmoozing at $20,000-a-plate dinners with insurers instead of meeting with ordinary Californians who are in pain, is cooking up plans that will favor insurers instead of making the system work better for the state's needy."

Jon Marcus is a self-employed recruiter from San Francisco whose HMO, the non-profit Blue Shield of California, has raised his rates every year for the last three years.

"Including premiums, co-pays and deductibles my health care costs have increased 300 percent over the last three years," said Jon Marcus of San Francisco. "Like others swirling in the vortex of out-of-control medical costs, I am making health decisions not on the basis of health, but on the basis of expense. Governor Schwarzenegger should regulate HMOs instead of taking their contributions and treating them to a private dinner."

FTCR, which recently launched a new website, http://www.ArnoldWatch.org, to track special interest influence in the Administration, expressed concerned over a recent $100,000 contribution to Schwarzenegger from AIG, the state's largest private workers' compensation insurer, in the midst of a special legislative session convened to debate reform of the industry. Schwarzenegger also received $21,200 from an executive of the California HMO, Blue Cross, which has a major merger pending before the Administration and that opposed HMO rate regulation. Schwarzenegger also received $31,200 from another HMO, PacifiCare, and appointed a former HMO executive as his Chief of Staff.

FTCR will call on Gov. Schwarzenegger to apply the same 'prior approval' rate regulation to workers' compensation and health insurers that has saved California consumers $23 billion in auto insurance premiums since voters approved Proposition 103 in 1988. This regulatory process would require workers' compensation insurers to get approval of their rates and allow an independent arbiter to deny rates deemed to be excessive or unfair.

FTCR noted that HMOs and workers' compensation insurers have experienced dramatic profit increases this year.

"The people and business owners of California know that insurance companies won't lower their rates unless their feet are held to the fire. Does Schwarzenegger think he can convince them over Champagne and escargot?," said Flanagan.

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The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR) is a non-profit and non-partisan consumer advocacy group. For more information about special interest influence in the Schwarzenegger Administration, please visit us on the web at http://www.ArnoldWatch.org

For more information about FTCR and our programs, please visit http://www.consumerwatchdog.org