Insurance Regulations

The question raised in your editorial about why insurance companies are not subject to “full scrutiny under antitrust laws,” echoes the unheeded call of consumer advocates to repeal the antitrust immunity that insurers now enjoy at the public’s expense. While we applaud the recent antitrust action taken by Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp and seven other attorneys general across the country (Part I, March 23), it is clear that the insurance industry is still able to circumvent competition in an increasingly unaffordable insurance marketplace and get off scot-free. Insurance companies are legally able to share information and pricing data, carve up territories, or engage in other anti-competitive practices which keep prices high.

We agree with The Times that insurance companies ought to be required to “play by the same rules” that other businesses must obey. After years of waiting for politicians who feed at the special-interest trough to enact such changes, citizens have taken matters into their own hands by utilizing one of the democratic tools provided in the California Constitution--the initiative process.

The Voter Revolt to Cut Insurance Rates campaign is a grass-roots coalition of citizens sponsoring an insurance reform measure for the November ballot. Chief among its provisions is a repealer of the insurance industry’s exemption from state antitrust laws and to make California’s tough unfair business practices law applicable to insurers for the first time.

In case anyone hasn’t heard, citizens in California are tired of hollow promises of relief from the insurance industry and politicians. We are doing something about unconscionable rates and anti-competitive corporate behavior. We are revolting with a comprehensive insurance reform initiative. Enough lip service, let the voters decide.

CARMEN GONZALEZ

Campaign Organizer

Voter Revolt to Cut

Insurance Rates

Santa Monica