Time to Talk – National Consumers League

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by NCL Staff

Our friends at the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) at the National Institutes of Health have just launched an educational campaign—Time to Talk—to encourage the discussion of use. Complementary and alternative meds (CAM) include products and practices such as herbal supplements, meditation, chiropractic care, and acupuncture.

AARP recently teamed up with NCCAM to survey patients over the age of 50, and they found that patients and their physicians aren’t really talking about alternative medicine. It looks like patients don’t know to ask their docs about alternative meds, and physicians aren’t initiating the conversations either. But this doesn’t mean that consumers aren’t using the herbal supplements, and other alternative medicines. The same survey found that nearly two-thirds ARE using it!

Hence, the Time to Talk program – put in place to try to initiate discussion between patients and their docs about what kinds of treatments they’re using or interested in trying. We at NCL are big fans of patient-provider communication, and we’re happy to help spread the word about Time to Talk. We’ve even provided a personal medication record for all consumers to get their medications listed in one place and help begin a conversation with their doctors – to prevent medication duplication, dangerous interactions, or a general lack of communication between doctors and patients. Good for you, NCCAM, and best of luck on spreading the messages of this important campaign!

Holiday Weekend Reflections: Honoring a Social Justice Hero – National Consumers League

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by NCL staff

As we all pack up for the long weekend and imagine how we’ll use our Monday holiday (a trip to the outlet malls, cleaning out the basement, finally putting away holiday decorations, etc.), we thought it was a nice time to reflect on January 21 and why it’s an important day.

This coming Monday is a federal holiday to honor Martin Luther King, Jr., remembered for his leadership in the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King Day became a holiday at the insistence of unions, which King long supported.

Nearly 40 years after his assassination, King’s legacy of nonviolence and social justice lives on. We at NCL hold a special place in our hearts for King and other leaders in social justice over the decades because of our shared history.

NCL was founded more than 100 years ago out of concern for workers and consumers rights in light of the horrendous conditions of sweatshops. NCL’s commitment to social justice – playing an instrumental role in Muller v. Oregon, a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld state law protections against overwork by women, has remained over the years.

Today, NCL continues to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the U.S. and abroad:

  • Running the Child Labor Coalition, which aims to protect working minors and end child labor exploitation. At a meeting of the CLC this week, we heard from representatives of China Labor Watch, a New York-based group that concerns itself with workers’ rights in China. (Pictured at right are David Shih, Executive Assistant and Li Qiang, Executive Director, China Labor Watch.)
  • Drawing attention to the link between consumer issues and fair labor standards
  • In our October 2007 testimony before the President’s Working Group on Import Safety we pointed out the link between recent revelations about lead-based paint in toys and reports of poor working conditions in the factories that produce them.
  • Playing a vital role in writing the first international standard on social responsibility, as one of the only consumer delegates involved

NCL honors King, the great leader of the U.S. nonviolent movement for justice, equality and peace, and we reaffirm our commitment to continue empowering consumers’ and workers’ interests through our education and advocacy efforts.

Sneezin’ Toddler? Feds Say TLC, not OTCs, Best Meds – National Consumers League

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By NCL staff

A lot of moms and dads turn to over the-counter cough and cold medicine when a kid comes down with the sniffles, but according to a public advisory issued today by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), pediatric cough and cold meds are no longer considered safe enough for use in kids under the age of 2.

The safety of those medicines was questioned starting late last summer, with an FDA advisory committee meeting in October. An FDA advisory panel voted 13-9 to not administer the use of cough and cold medicines to children six and under. The FDA has not taken final action on this recommendation.

Manufacturers of the cough and cold products for children under 2 voluntarily withdrew them from pharmacy shelves before the advisory committee even met in the fall. The FDA has made a final decision, affirming the position that cough and cold meds are no longer safe to use in kids two and under. So, in the middle of a tough cold and flu season, what’s a parent to do? Thankfully, there are ways to safely treat our kids’ coughs and colds. And stay tuned for more on this from the FDA in the coming months.

How Healthy Is Your Nest Egg? – National Consumers League

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by NCL staff

We recently ran across an advertisement for an insurance company that included this fact: “Hallmark sold 85,000 ‘Happy 100th Birthday!’ cards last year.”

That’s certainly something to think about. The ad also said that the average American is living about 20 years past the age of 65 (87 for women, and 84 for men). That’s a lot of years, post-retirement, that consumers need to plan for, and a recent survey indicates that many seniors aren’t considering basics like health and medical costs when they’re saving for the golden years.

According to a national survey of 1,000 Americans over the age of 65 conducted by Directive Analytics, more than half of retirees (55 percent) have said they completely overlooked their health care and prescription drug needs when planning for retirement expenses, and one in three seniors said their medical or drug costs surpass their expectations, and are taking away from their “golden years” lifestyle.

The good news is that there are plenty of resources out there to help seniors who may be looking for ways to cut their health costs. Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs helps consumers find the most effective and safe drugs with the most value for your dollar. Also, Medco Health Solutions, Inc., is offering a free guide including tips about shopping for Medicare plans, saving on prescription refills, and avoiding medication duplication.

Product Safety: Beyond the ‘Year of the Recall’ – National Consumers League

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by NCL Staff

To a crowd of reporters and a handful of consumer advocates, the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s Acting Chairman Nancy Nord yesterday described a new import surveillance system that her agency will implement, pending legislation, at many of America’s ports.

The system includes an increased staff presence to better identify potential problem products before they reach the market, Nord said at a luncheon at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The new tracking system would provide the federal agency with access to real-time information of shipments and would allow the feds to focus on high-risk product shipments. CPSC would also target inspection on imported products that have been identified as riskier to consumers. NCL has voiced its concern over goods imported from China and the implications this practice presents for consumers and the workers that produce such unsafe goods. Additionally, there would be increased enforcement of standards and additional post-recall surveillance, to allow CPSC to address emerging hazards quickly and more efficiently, Nord said.

Despite the proposed changes, at the end of the day, it is the U.S. retailer who has the responsibility to ensure the products they sell are safe, Nord said. She added that unlike the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the CPSC is not designed to test products before they reach the market.

Nord acknowledged that 2007 was publicly perceived as the year of the recall, but she said that CPSC actually issued only a few more recalls last year than the year before (467 in 2006 vs. 472 in 2007). Nord said that recalls don’t indicate that more unsafe products are out in the market, and that the agency has always viewed recalls as a testament to the agency’s enforcement.

Nonetheless, “Change is inevitable, and that is where my focus will be in 2008”, Nord said.

We certainly look forward to holding you to it, CPSC!

2008: Day Six – National Consumers League

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by NCL staff

Here we are, less than a week into 2008. How are your new year’s resolutions holding up? Whether you have kept them all, or have resolved not to make any resolutions, we figured you might be interested in some tips to help start the year off right.

Determined to finally lose those extra pounds? Do so healthfully. Did your holiday spending get out of hand? Notice an error on your credit report? Check out NCL’s tips here. Vowed to help others more? Volunteerism can take many forms. Consider helping out at your state or the National LifeSmarts competition. Or, donate to NCL!

Do you want more ideas on how you can stay healthy, avoid scams, and make smart decisions overall as a consumer? Check out NCL’s 2008 Consumer Calendar online.

Here’s to a happy and healthy 2008!

NCL in the Land Down Under: Sally Meets with Australian Product Safety Compliance Official – National Consumers League

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by Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

G’Day!

While traveling in Australia this week, I met with a colleague who works the product safety beat for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, (ACCC) the Australian government’s official consumer protection and enforcement agency. Gail O’Bryen, Director of Product Safety Compliance, and I have worked together on product safety issues for a number of years. Not surprisingly this year, Australia, like the United States and Europe, has had to grapple with the danger of lead in toys. Australia effectively banned lead in toys so that no toy may have more than .06 parts per million of lead.

Gail also noted that the ACCC expects to set a standard for buggies and strollers after several incidents when these nursery products lead to shocking incidents of injury or death of small children. In several instances, strollers without a braking system rolled away into water or traffic. The ACCC expects to see improved standards for strollers and buggies in the near future.

Finally, the ACCC will likely have a standard for self-extinguishing cigarettes before the end of the year. This is something the United States has adopted in some states, but there has never been a federal standard for fire-safe cigarettes, despite the work of the Consumer Product Safety Commission on the issue. The ACCC works on a vast number of consumer issues, and product safety is only a facet of what this government enforcement agency does for Aussies. Nevertheless, the product and toy safety issue has received the full attention of the Commission.

Learning what colleagues in other countries are doing to address concerns about hazardous products – many of them the same or similar products, like toys, cigarettes, or strollers – has always proved valuable to our work on these and other consumer protection issues.

Hooroo!

Sweepstakes Scams Continue to Thrive – National Consumers League

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by Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

Last month we blogged about the results we’ve been seeing from our national public education project on fake check scams.  Recently, I had the opportunity to speak with another consumer who we’ve been able to help.

The consumer had been receiving sweepstakes “winning notifications” in the mail for six months, and was buying money orders twice a week – convinced that sending her money would pay off. A banker from her small Texas town suspected that her 80-year old customer might be falling victim to a sweepstakes scam, and contacted NCL’s Fraud Center.

When I spoke with the consumer (who we’ll call “Ms. Jones”), she described the situation to me as such: the first letter she received was from Levittown, New York, from a sweepstakes prize claim office, indicating to her that she’d won millions of dollars in a lottery. The winnings would be hers soon, but first Ms. Jones needed to send in $18 for processing fees to claim her prize. The 80-year-old eagerly did as she was told, and sent in a check for $18. Soon she received another letter, asking for a slightly larger amount to “claim her prize” – but still not enough to set off signals. The letters always included deadlines, urging Ms. Jones to send the necessary fees quickly in order to collect the prizes she’d won.

In the following months, Ms. Jones received what she described to me as “stacks” of letters from very professional-seeming operations telling her she was just one more check away from cashing in on her prize. The woman, who lives on a fixed income, reluctantly admitted to having sent away hundreds of dollars in attempts to claim her prize, little by little. When Jones’ banker noticed the trend of small but regular withdrawals to her account, she intervened.

A staffer from NCL’s Fraud Center immediately followed up with the consumer, and explained that she was being duped, as you will never have to pay money to “win” money from a legitimate company or operation.

Unfortunately, this consumer’s story is not that unique. In fact, we hear from many older consumers – or their children or grandchildren – about scams perpetrated against them because many con artists have identified seniors as a vulnerable group. They often find it more difficult to hang up on predatory telemarketers, and they can end up being bilked, bit by bit, out of hundreds or thousands of dollars.

This gets us steamed, and that’s why we are committed to raising awareness about such Telemarketing and Internet Scams. We tell consumers that there is no legitimate reason why anyone would give you a check or money order and ask you to send back any money in return. No matter the details of the scam — whether they’re trying to purchase something from you, asking for your help moving money around, or saying you’ve won a foreign lottery—it’s a scam.

Consumers can report scams online to NCL’s Fraud Center here.

Health IT: growing interests and concerns – National Consumers League

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Many assume that the health care system in the United States is the best in the world — at least for those who are able to access it. The reality for many people is that our system often fails to deliver quality care, misses many people who need care the most, and suffers from significant inefficiencies that lead to high costs. Even according to conservative estimates, hospital errors are the nation’s eighth leading cause of death — ahead of breast cancer, AIDS and motor vehicle accidents combined.

Preventable medical errors include a wide variety of examples: misidentification of patients; misreading of tests; medication errors, equipment failures; and hospital-acquired infections. Researchers have estimated that your chance of getting the right care at the right time is only slightly more than 50 percent — and it’s worse for women and minorities!

Unfortunately, low-quality health care means high-priced consequences. The combination of overuse, misuse, and underuse accounts for up to 30 percent of our national health care expenditures. Improving the quality of care would make Americans healthier and help us address the skyrocketing costs. With that goal in mind, many policy makers, businesses, health care providers, and provider institutions (such as hospitals) are looking to health information technology (HIT) as a way to improve health care quality.

HIT represents a transition from paper-based to computer-based transactions for health care services. For patients, it can mean that doctors use computers to keep track of patient health information, rather than traditional paper charts. These electronic medical records can help health care providers stay organized and make better clinical decisions. Much of the real value to patients and providers is seen only when multiple providers (and ideally the patient) are able to share medical information electronically whenever and wherever it is needed. This concept is often referred to as health information exchange, or HIE.

Appropriately implemented, HIE has the potential to provide consumers with information to make better decisions about their own health care and the care of their loved ones. An electronic health record that could be accessed by authorized parties would mean that health care providers would be able to access the information they need (medications, lab results, allergies) to make better health care decisions.

While all of this is possible, there are potential risks. Understandably, many consumers are afraid that broader sharing of their personal health information will only make it more vulnerable to unwanted and unintended exposure, which could have significant life-long consequences for their personal, social, and financial wellbeing. While NCL is very supportive of moving forward with health information technology and exchange systems, these initiatives will only succeed if all consumers can be confident that their personal health information is being handled in a secure, appropriate, and confidential manner.

NCL is part of a growing consumer coalition dedicated to seeing that these and other essential conditions are built in to systems emerging across the country. This is a critical time for consumer involvement, as efforts to promote nationwide adoption of health information technology are proceeding rapidly. There is a significant need for strong consumer voices at all levels of this effort — voices that strongly support the promise of health information technology to improve our healthcare system, but that will work to ensure adequate consumer protections. 

 

Charlie Cook’s Politics 101 – National Consumers League

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by Sally Greenberg

On a Tuesday morning right before the Christmas break, I sat mesmerized at a breakfast held at one of Washington’s toniest hotels as the leading guru of political prognostication, Charlie Cook, spun his tale of politics 101. Cook, a native Louisianan, has made his name in Washington as the go-to guy for playing the odds on Presidential politics, U.S. Senate, House and state races. Cook’s considered by many as the best there is for political predictions.

Among his “bon mots” from last year’s breakfast – I wasn’t there but my table mates recounted it – Cook told the audience that Rudy Guliani has “as much chance of winning the Republican nomination as I have of winning the Tour de France.” In order to appreciate that comment, you have to see the man- he’s, well, chubby, very chubby. He probably wouldn’t make it more than a kilometer or two on the straightaway, let alone into the Alps.

Cook’s reasoning? In order to win the republican nomination you have to be at least two of these three: anti-abortion (Guiliani’s pro-choice); anti-gun control (Guiliani’s pro-control, at least he was as mayor of New York City); and anti-gay rights (Guiliani backs civil unions and was considered very gay-friendly while mayor of NYC).

So who does Cook think has the best chance of winning the Republican nomination? He’s giving the odds to Mitt Romney, Massachusetts’ former governor. What about the Huckabee surge ? Cook says he has no money and no organization. And Fred Thompson –“they use the term ‘running’ for a reason. He’s not running, he’s sauntering.” As for Senator John McCain, he doesn’t have any money left either – he blew through a lot of his campaign war chest early on – and he’s made serious tactical mistakes, like backing a compromise on immigration that is inimical to the beliefs of his republican base. Cook doesn’t think McCain can do it.

On the democratic side, Cook says that if Hillary Clinton loses Iowa – the candidates are neck-and-neck there – and New Hampshire, she’s dead. If Obama wins one of these two and Clinton the other, Cooks says it’s a horserace. Cook told the audience that the democrats have a 60-40 chance of winning, but neither “Clinton nor Obama wins big.”

If dems could run a “placebo – you know, your generic boring white male ticket, say former Virginia governor Mark Warner and Indiana Senator Evan Bayh – that might guarantee them the top elected official slot.” But, as Cook noted, that’s not happening this year. So, if Cook is right, we’re looking at a Clinton-Romney race come spring, when all the dust has settled and the presidential race at full tilt. If not, well, Cook won’t be the first Washington pundit to get it wrong, but he’ll always be one of the most entertaining.