Insurance Rates

Insuring a car is about to get a little cheaper for many Southland motorists. The Automobile Club of Southern California, the state's fifth-largest car insurer, is expected to announce a 5.4% rate cut today that will save 1 million customers an average of $100 per vehicle. The new rates become effective April 1 for new policies and those renewed on or after that date. The auto club cited a drop in policyholder loss claims during the last two years as well as its tight controls on operating expenses for creating the flexibility to lower premiums.

Supporters of a proposed ballot measure seeking tighter regulation of health insurance rates in California turned in 800,000 petition signatures, confident that they will qualify for the Nov. 6 election. In the coming weeks, county election offices and the California secretary of state will determine whether the measure meets the requirement for 504,760 valid signatures of registered voters. The deadline to qualify is June 28. The initiative is expected to spark an expensive campaign battle over rising health insurance rates, which have angered thousands of California consumers in recent years.

The state Supreme Court will rule today on the constitutionality of Proposition 103, the far-ranging insurance initiative approved by voters Nov. 8, the court announced Wednesday. The decision will come in one of the most widely watched cases to come before the justices in years and will affect millions of Californians holding automobile and property insurance policies. At stake are an estimated $4 billion in premium reductions mandated under the initiative--as well as broad new governmental control over the insurance industry in the state.

Several high-profile business names, such as San Francisco hedge-fund manager Thomas Steyer and agribusiness magnate Stewart Resnick, have contributed to a proposed ballot measure seeking tighter regulation of health insurance rates, according to campaign finance records. These contributions were among $1.5 million in donations reported Monday to the California Secretary of State by Consumer Watchdog, the Santa Monica group leading the ballot drive. A coalition of insurers, hospitals, doctors and business groups opposing the measure has reported $367,200 in donations.

It's the peak of what is now a year-round fire season. And throughout Southern California, homeowners in blaze-prone regions are having a hard time finding fire insurance. Tens of thousands of homes are in the region's brushy canyons, with still more under construction.

A bill that would allow California officials to regulate health insurance rates for millions of consumers has died in the Legislature after forceful lobbying campaigns by insurers, healthcare providers and other groups. Assemblyman Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles) said he is pulling his measure, AB52, because he could not muster a majority of votes in the state Senate, the final stop in a months-long effort to increase state regulators' authority over health insurance premiums. Feuer said he is putting his bill on hold until next year, when it can be taken up again.

The California Earthquake Authority, which provides most of the state's earthquake coverage, has proposed a change in rates. Overall, rates would fall by about 4%, but in some areas they would increase by 100% or more. For a report and a list of affected ZIP Codes and territories, go to http://www.latimes.com/HOME/BUSINESS/UPDATES/lat_quake1218.htm .

Re "Allstate, Farmers Insurance to Raise Cost of Liability Coverage for SUVs, Pickups," Dec. 5. The concept that penalizing owners of larger vehicles, including sport-utility vehicles, because it is believed that they cause more damage than smaller cars, doesn't quite sit right. Does that also mean they sustain less damage than smaller cars when hit by 18-wheel tractor trailers? If so, then a motorcycle owner should not pay for any insurance at all. This all smacks of the old Marxist-socialist scheme of redistribution of wealth.

Your Oct. 18 editorial on Prop. 213 failed to mention one very important fact: Prop. 213 only affects people who break the law. Readers won't be confused about the initiative once they have the facts--Prop. 213 will stop people from cheating the system when they break the law and drive drunk or without insurance and then expect to be rewarded following an auto collision. The fact is that law-abiding drivers spend more than $1 billion every year to protect themselves against uninsured motorists.

Re "Major Shift in Auto Policies," July 10 The setting of auto insurance rates based on how safely and how much customers drive was in place in Sweden in the 1960s when I worked there. It was wonderful to see my premiums decrease with each year of accident-free driving. It is intriguing that Sweden, with a population about the same as L.A. County, could set rates that we are just now, 40 years later, about to enjoy. C. RAY CARLSON Altadena Proposition 103 was about fairly pricing insurance.

SACRAMENTO — Aetna, the state's third-largest health insurance company, is raising rates for thousands of small-business customers to a level that state insurance regulators call "excessive. " California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones on Thursday criticized Aetna Life Insurance Co. of Hartford, Conn., for raising health insurance group rates by an average of 8% a year for about 77,000 employees of small companies. The rate increases, which took effect April 1, were as high as 21% in some cases, Jones said.

Aetna Life Insurance Co. raised health insurance rates for small employers by an average of 8% a year beginning April 1, a hike that California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones called unreasonable. Jones said Thursday that he'd asked Aetna to withdraw its increase in quarterly rates, affecting 77,000 employees and dependents of small employers. But Jones said he has no legal power to reject Aetna's rate increase, a situation that he said could change if voters back a proposed initiative to require health insurers to seek prior approval from regulators for changes in rates.

A high-stakes ballot measure to give state regulators the power to approve health insurance rates in California has landed a heavyweight supporter: U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein. One of California's most respected politicians, Feinstein has come forward as the chief spokeswoman and No. 1 booster of a proposed initiative to regulate hikes in health premiums. "I am proud to tell you that I was the first person to sign a new ballot initiative petition that will reform the health insurance industry in California," Feinstein, a San Francisco Democrat, wrote in an email sent to about 2 million registered voters.

  A high-stakes ballot measure to give state regulators the power to approve health insurance rates in California has landed a heavyweight supporter: U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein. One of California's most respected politicians, Feinstein has come forward as the chief spokeswoman and No. 1 booster of a proposed initiative to regulate hikes in health premiums. "I am proud to tell you that I was the first person to sign a new ballot initiative petition that will reform the health insurance industry in California," Feinstein, a San Francisco Democrat, wrote in an email sent to about 2 million registered voters.

Insurance companies don't care if you believe in climate change or not: Your premiums are going up anyhow. NPR reported Monday that home insurance premiums are going up across the board in response to the record number of tornadoes, floods, fires, blizzards and other heavy weather that hit the country in 2011. The piece features insurance executives at major firms such as Allstate and State Farm saying they are raising rates as much as 10%.  The president of the Insurance Information Institute, a New York-based industry association, says the weather caused about $35 billion of insured damages last year in the U.S. in events that caused a total of $70 billion in economic losses.

The former "Nader's Raider" who used California's initiative process to regulate auto insurance rates is headed back to the ballot. This time he's spoiling to take on health insurers. Harvey Rosenfield, the combative attorney and consumer advocate who wrote California's landmark Proposition 103 more than two decades ago, is preparing a ballot initiative that would force health insurers to get state government approval before they could raise premiums. Stricter controls are needed to put some restraints on a industry that's reaping fat returns for shareholders and multimillion-dollar salaries for executives while consumers struggle to pay for coverage, Rosenfield said.

An administrative law judge has rejected the insurance rates for residential quake coverage submitted by the California Earthquake Authority. Judge Andrea Biren rejected the rates, questioning the accuracy of computer models used to estimate average annual losses. In response to the decision, which he can challenge, state Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush requested public comment on Biren's ruling.

The Obama administration Monday called on a health insurance company in Pennsylvania to reduce what it is charging small businesses, using a tool in the new healthcare law for the first time to pressure insurers to restrain rising premiums. Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services determined that Everence Insurance Co.'s plan to raise rates on about 5,000 people in Pennsylvania by nearly 12% next year is unreasonable. That rate is not justified by what the insurer was expected to pay out in medical claims in the state, said Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius.