FTCR’s 2006 Insurance Reform Proposal
<h3>Stop Insurance Company Abuses Act</h3>
Insurance
Insurance news, investigations, and reform — auto, home, and health insurance rates, claims denials, and industry accountability.
Nurses Propose Donor Limits
<h3>The union, a foe of the governor, wants to ban corporate donations for candidates and ballot measures and create a public-financing system.</h3><p class="source">The Los Angeles Times</p>
<p>The measure would ban corporate donations to candidates and to ballot-measure fights, and create a system of public financing for those running for office. Candidates who rejected the financing could accept only relatively small contributions -- $500 for legislative races, $1,000 for statewide offices. </p>
Sacramento’s scandal-in-waiting
<p class="source">The Los Angeles Times</p>
<p>The Abramoff scandal has proved nothing if not that the line between public and private service needs to be clear and bright. And it reminds us that the nexus of politics and money in the state capital is cancerous to the body politic and to the creation of good public policy.</p>
Outline for stem cell funding has provisions for uninsured;
<h3>State's task force preparing guidelines</h3><p class="source">The San Diego Union-Tribune</p>
<p>As requested by two consumer watchdog groups, the task force's proposed policy includes provisions that would make drugs available to under-served Californians and also try to recoup some of the taxpayers' investment.</p>
Stem Cell Intellectual Property Policy: “Affordability, Accessibility and Accountability in California Stem Cell Research.”
Report on affordability, accessibility and accountability on intellectual property policy in California stem cell research. <!-- excerpt -->
Measure Seeks Curbs on Insurers
<h3>
<strong>A leading consumer advocate presses an initiative that could compete with a ballot proposal offered by an industry executive.</strong></h3>
<p class="source">
<em>The Los Angeles Times</em></p>
<p>
SACRAMENTO -- California voters may be in for a repeat of the 1988 ballot free-for-all that produced a landmark state insurance law.</p>
Group: Klein should quit
<h3>Nonprofit claims 'pattern of leadership failures' by stem cell agency chief.</h3><p class="source">Sacramento Bee</p>
<p>John M. Simpson, Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights stem cell project director, said this policy could deny affordable access to cures. He called for revamping the agency's structure rather than getting rid of Klein because the agency's problems "go beyond personalities."</p>
City officials decry insurance initiative
<p class="source">The Daily News of Los Angeles</p>
<p>"It would undo all that has been done under Proposition 103, taking California from one of the highest cost states to get insurance to one of the lowest," CA Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi said. "This is just an attempt by one company to benefit itself at the expense of California motorists."</p>
Insurers’ System for Rates Varies;
<h3>A driver's address or gender can be more important in the state than experience. But a Prop 103 compliance push may change that.</h3><p class="source">Los Angeles Times</p>
<p>Garamendi's proposal is the latest salvo in a decades-long battle centered mainly on the industry's practice of giving the most weight to ZIP Code factors that measure the cost and frequency of accidents and thefts in an area.</p>
Reckless and Feckless
<font face="verdana,sans-serif" size="2">Giving your biggest donors access to your chief of staff <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-me-kennedy12jan12,0,6614835.story?coll=la-home-headlines">(as the LA Times...</a>
</font>
Study: Malpractice insurers inflated losses to raise rates
<p class="source">The Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York)</p>
<p>Medical malpractice insurance companies consistently inflated the amount they estimated they would pay out in claims between 1986 and 1994, then used the inflated figures to justify enormous increases in doctors' premiums, according to a study by the nonprofit Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights.</p>
Driven To Excess
<p class="source">The Los Angeles Times</p>
<p>It's safe to say that the industry is not much better loved today than it was in 1988. Other large insurers have not yet stated whether they will join Joseph and Mercury's attempt to roll back Proposition 103. They should remember once and think twice. </p>