March 1, 2005: Headlines: COS - Ethiopia: Insurance: State Politics: Sacramento Bee: Insurers win round against Garamendi
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March 1, 2005: Headlines: COS - Ethiopia: Insurance: State Politics: Sacramento Bee: Insurers win round against Garamendi
Insurers win round against Garamendi
Insurers win round against Garamendi
Insurers win round against Garamendi
By Dale Kasler -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PST Tuesday, March 1, 2005
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Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi lost another round Monday in his long-running dispute with the industry over his attempt to regulate homeowners' coverage.
The Court of Appeal upheld a lower-court ruling that said Garamendi exceeded his authority by putting limits on the industry's ability to cancel or fail to renew insurance for homeowners who've filed a claim.
In 2003, Garamendi saw increasing complaints from consumers who said their homeowners' policies were canceled or not renewed because they'd filed a claim. Garamendi was concerned that insurers were scrapping basic underwriting fundamentals about risk and relying instead on industry databases that list policyholder claims.
He first issued an advisory notice to insurers warning against using the existence of a claim to cancel or not renew a homeowner, a practice known as "use it and lose it." He then issued a set of formal guidelines on the matter.
Three insurance trade organizations sued the commissioner, and won. On Monday they won again.
"He has overstepped his bounds," said Jerry Davies, spokesman for the Personal Insurance Federation of California, one of the three trade groups. "A company needs to have control of its underwriting book."
Davies also said Garamendi was exaggerating the extent to which companies were dropping policyholders. "Less than one-half of 1 percent of people are nonrenewed," he said.
In its ruling, the appeals court said state law gives the commissioner very little power to regulate homeowners' insurance. It said its ruling was based on the legality of Garamendi's move, "not its wisdom."
Norman Williams, a spokesman for Garamendi, wouldn't comment on the ruling, but he said the commissioner was reacting to a wave of consumer complaints in 2003.
"People were afraid that if they filed one claim, they would face nonrenewal or cancellation," Williams said.
When this story was posted in March 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:
| The Peace Corps Library Peace Corps Online is proud to announce that the Peace Corps Library is now available online. With over 30,000 index entries in over 500 categories, this is the largest collection of Peace Corps related reference material in the world. From Acting to Zucchini, you can use the Main Index to find hundreds of stories about RPCVs who have your same interests, who served in your Country of Service, or who serve in your state. |
| March 1: National Day of Action Tuesday, March 1, is the NPCA's National Day of Action. Please call your Senators and ask them to support the President's proposed $27 Million budget increase for the Peace Corps for FY2006 and ask them to oppose the elimination of Perkins loans that benefit Peace Corps volunteers from low-income backgrounds. Follow this link for step-by-step information on how to make your calls. Then take our poll and leave feedback on how the calls went. |
| Coates Redmon, Peace Corps Chronicler Coates Redmon, a staffer in Sargent Shriver's Peace Corps, died February 22 in Washington, DC. Her book "Come as You Are" is considered to be one of the finest (and most entertaining) recountings of the birth of the Peace Corps and how it was literally thrown together in a matter of weeks. If you want to know what it felt like to be young and idealistic in the 1960's, get an out-of-print copy. We honor her memory. |
| Make a call for the Peace Corps PCOL is a strong supporter of the NPCA's National Day of Action and encourages every RPCV to spend ten minutes on Tuesday, March 1 making a call to your Representatives and ask them to support President Bush's budget proposal of $345 Million to expand the Peace Corps. Take our Poll: Click here to take our poll. We'll send out a reminder and have more details early next week. |
| Peace Corps Calendar: Tempest in a Teapot? Bulgarian writer Ognyan Georgiev has written a story which has made the front page of the newspaper "Telegraf" criticizing the photo selection for his country in the 2005 "Peace Corps Calendar" published by RPCVs of Madison, Wisconsin. RPCV Betsy Sergeant Snow, who submitted the photograph for the calendar, has published her reply. Read the stories and leave your comments. |
| WWII participants became RPCVs Read about two RPCVs who participated in World War II in very different ways long before there was a Peace Corps. Retired Rear Adm. Francis J. Thomas (RPCV Fiji), a decorated hero of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, died Friday, Jan. 21, 2005 at 100. Mary Smeltzer (RPCV Botswana), 89, followed her Japanese students into WWII internment camps. We honor both RPCVs for their service. |
| Bush's FY06 Budget for the Peace Corps The White House is proposing $345 Million for the Peace Corps for FY06 - a $27.7 Million (8.7%) increase that would allow at least two new posts and maintain the existing number of volunteers at approximately 7,700. Bush's 2002 proposal to double the Peace Corps to 14,000 volunteers appears to have been forgotten. The proposed budget still needs to be approved by Congress. |
| RPCVs mobilize support for Countries of Service RPCV Groups mobilize to support their Countries of Service. Over 200 RPCVS have already applied to the Crisis Corps to provide Tsunami Recovery aid, RPCVs have written a letter urging President Bush and Congress to aid Democracy in Ukraine, and RPCVs are writing NBC about a recent episode of the "West Wing" and asking them to get their facts right about Turkey. |
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Story Source: Sacramento Bee
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