Proposition 45 supporters rallied Thursday in front of the Blue Shield headquarters in San Francisco's Financial District, demanding seats in the company's new multimillion dollar sky box at Levi's Stadium.
The measure on the November ballot would require insurance companies to get permission from the state's insurance commissioner before they could raise health insurance rates.
"Not-for-profit companies have no business with multimillion dollar sky boxes while policy holders are asked to pay rate hikes in the double digits every year," said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog.
A couple of dozen protesters from Consumer Watchdog participated in Thursday's rally. The Santa Monica-based group is best known for California's automobile insurance roll back 25 years ago.
Consumer groups claim the automobile insurance measure, known as Prop 103, has saved California drivers tens of billions of dollars. Opponents of Prop 45 -- including business groups, health providers and insurance companies -- said this is a much different issue.
Micah Weinberg of the Bay Area Council said Consumer Watchdog is trying to grab another revenue stream.
"So not only does this break health care reform in this state, but it does so for the purposes of making money for the very people who put it on the ballot -- that's a scandal," Weinberg said.
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Opponents of Prop 45 are relying on the deep pockets of insurance companies -- six companies including Blue Shield have ponied up $37 million to defeat the measure. Supporters of the initiative have raised about half a million dollars.
A new field poll shows Prop 45 has 41 percent of voters in favor of the measure, 26 percent opposed and a third of those polled undecided.
