Chuck Quackenbush: Elected by Insurance Companies

---

Chuck Quackenbush, the insurance companies' man in California State Government, has been an excellent investment for the companies he was voted into office to watch. Insurance Companies contributed $2.3 million to the Quackenbush campaign when he was first elected in 1994. "Illegal!" you say? You are right. The Fair Political Practices Commission fined Quackenbush $50,000 for 31 violations of campaign finance reporting laws. It is clear that the Quackenbush campaign decided that the fines were no more than a cost of doing business that they were more than willing to endure. Quackenbush's first act as Insurance Commissioner was to rebate millions of dollars in penalties and interest from the insurance companies' failures to abide by the laws initiated by the voters in 1986.

Moreover, Quackenbush has endeared himself to the insurance companies by authoring the Quackenbush Initiative, Proposition 213. Prop 213 has saved the insurance companies over $50 million dollars in the first year of its enactment. No wonder the insurance companies have contributed over $6 million to Quackenbush campaigns for election as Insurance Commissioner. The real question becomes, however: when will Quackenbush wake up and see the big dollars he is making for the insurance companies and demand more? Or maybe the HMO debate in California is nothing more than Quackenbush wrestling with his benefactors over more money, because there appears to be more than enough political and public sentiment behind reform of HMO's, yet nothing seems to get done.

How about Quackenbush's earthquake insurance law? Quackenbush successfully lobbied and pushed through an earthquake relief authority that shifts the financial responsibility for major earthquake catastrophe from insurance companies to us, the taxpayers. Moreover, not only are insurance companies off the hook for earthquakes, but the taxpayers who sign up for the limited coverage may be on the hook for losses that exceed their own claim. Imagine the citizen who signs up for Quackenbush's earthquake coverage, suffers major catastrophic damages, and then gets a bill from the earthquake authority for contribution to the pool to pay other damaged individuals. The Earthquake Authority insures only that the insurance companies in California will be guaranteed no major losses and thus they will make profits.

Lastly, have you ever had a claim with an insurance company that you disputed and felt that they had offered you too little to compensate you for your loss? In virtually every letter from any insurance company to a claimant telling them that "this is it, drop dead" there is a reference that you have the right to complain to the insurance commissioner if you feel that you have been dealt with unfairly. Good luck, because you will be complaining to the Insurance Commissioner, Chuck Quackenbush, the skunk assigned to guard the hen house.