Current Campaigns

The Truth About Credit

More than half of all Americans carry credit card debt, partially because of a variety of unfair practices used by credit card companies to trap consumers in a cycle of over-priced debt. Read More.

Challenging the Bailout

Since its inception in October of 2008, the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) has expanded and evolved into an alphabet soup of programs and is now known as the Financial Stability Plan.

Most people just think of these programs as "the bailout" of the banks, insurance companies and the auto industries.

WashPIRG continues to challenge Congress and the Department of Treasury to be more transparent about the bailout programs and to better protect the taxpayers who are paying for them.

Reining In Wall Street

The health reform legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by the President will make health care work for our country by lowering costs for Americans and once and for all level the playing field between American families and insurance companies.

Here are the immediate benefits that this new law will provide American consumers this year:

• Prohibits pre-existing condition exclusions for children in all new plans;

• Prohibits dropping people from coverage when they get sick in all individual plans;

• Lowers seniors prescription drug prices by beginning to close the donut hole;

• Offers tax credits to small businesses to purchase coverage;

• Eliminates lifetime limits and restrictive annual limits on benefits in all plans;

• Requires plans to cover an enrollee's dependent children until age 26;

• Requires new plans to cover preventive services and immunizations;

• Ensures consumers have access to an effective internal and external appeals process to appeal new insurance plan decisions;

• Offers uninsured Americans with pre-existing conditions the choice of enrolling in insurance provided through a temporary high-risk pool;

• Requires premium rebates to enrollees from insurers with high administrative expenditures and require public disclosure of the percent of premiums applied to overhead costs.

Overview

For years, Americans have paid more and more but got less and less when it came to health care. It's happened because America’s health care system is structured for the benefit of drug industry, insurance company, and medical specialty profits, not for consumers and patients.

With your help, WashPIRG won federal health reform legislation that can, if properly implemented, begin to deliver the increased security and relief from rising costs that Americans need.

But our work is far from complete.

The same special interests who opposed strong reform are now working to weaken and cripple its implementation.

WashPIRG will be there to ensure reform succeeds at:

• Stopping insurance companies from discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions.

• Trimming costly red tape and overhead through simplified insurance forms, information technology and insurer-efficiency standards.

• Incentivizing preventive and high-quality care from your provider that keeps you well, not just endless tests, procedures and emergency room visits after you get sick.

• Giving every patient and doctor the most up-to-date information on which treatments and medicines work best.

• Allowing Americans, who don't have quality employer-provided coverage, to enroll in the kind of plans Members of Congress have through a new health insurance exchange.