Insurance Rates

The nation's healthy banks could save up to $4.4 billion annually in premiums for deposit insurance under a drastically reduced rate structure approved Tuesday. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. board, by a 4-0 vote, agreed to slash premiums banks pay into the insurance fund, a reduction that could go into effect by September. The FDIC manages the fund, which insures deposits in member banks for up to $100,000 per account in the event a bank fails.

After extended administrative hearings, Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush approved a controversial new earthquake insurance plan for Farmers Insurance Group, under which the state's third-largest insurer will increase rates by an average of 138% and impose higher deductibles and co-payments on most customers. The plan also allows consumers to opt for a new kind of bare-bones earthquake insurance policy providing limited coverage at a lower price than the traditional policy.

In another sign of intense medical cost cutting statewide, the California Public Employees Retirement System has once again wielded its bargaining clout to negotiate reductions of more than 2% in the cost of health insurance for nearly 1 million Californians. CalPERS, the pension fund of government workers that is also one of the nation's largest health care purchasing groups, has negotiated the rate rollbacks for 1996 with 22 insurers, including 16 health maintenance organizations.

A coalition of consumer groups and the city and county of Los Angeles on Tuesday filed a petition with the state insurance commissioner in an effort to force auto insurers to place less emphasis on where drivers live when setting premiums. The groups want newly elected Insurance Commissioner Charles W.

The long-running feud over auto insurance rates continued Tuesday as state regulators heard testimony in Los Angeles on proposals to reduce reliance on ZIP codes in setting rates. During the hearing, Los Angeles City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas presented the panel with a box containing hundreds of red cards from residents in South Central Los Angeles complaining about costly auto insurance rates.

Their advertisements crowd daytime and late-night television and are plastered across bus benches and billboards. Some of their telephone numbers are as easy to remember as 911 and their names approach celebrity status. Love them or hate them, lawyers like the ubiquitous Larry H. Parker make big bucks representing motorists, motorcyclists and pedestrians injured in traffic accidents.

Two county supervisors have expressed reservations about a proposal to classify some canyon and hillside areas as "very high-fire hazard severity zones," fearing the designation would prompt insurers to raise rates in the neighborhoods. County fire officials have proposed creating zones in some unincorporated areas in response to 1993's Laguna Beach fire, which destroyed hundreds of homes.