[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Sara S. Nichols

Although the job of (statewide elected California) Insurance Commissioner is not often associated with environmental issues, both the current and the immediate past job holders ran green. With the Southern California firestorms highlighting the effect of global climate change on the possibility of disasters and their attendant insurance claims, one wonders, what will/have these insurance commissioners done to move the insurance industry into political/economic reality?

In Europe, the insurance industry has been a crucial partner with environmentalists to pursue sane environmental policies that stem the production of greenhouse gases, thereby slowing global climate change, and protecting their bottom line.

In the U.S., the insurance industry routinely acts in lockstep with the Chamber of Commerce to oppose environmental bills which inconvenience polluters.

Past (Democratic) Insurance Commissioner and current Lt. Governor John Garamendi wants to be governor of California. He calls himself an environmentalist and campaigns on the need to do something about global climate change. Yet, when he was Insurance Commissioner did he use his position to nudge the insurance industry out of its historically anti-environmental stance? I don't recall hearing about such efforts.

by Julia Rosen [courtesy of Working Californians blogs]

It is counterintuitive I admit, to claim that the Democratic legislators plan (AB 8) is better than Schwarznegger's proposal, which actually covers more people. The reality is that it is actually worse to force people into crappy plans that they can't afford than it is for them to go uninsured. It is an ugly calculation for sure. Unless you regulate the insurance industry more than what the Democrats are proposing, or offer a governmental run plan (ala Edwards), it is unacceptable to have an individual mandate. Weintraub doesn't seem to get this.

Democratic lawmakers have criticized his plan as too friendly to the insurance industry, and they don't like the idea of requiring individuals to take responsibility for obtaining coverage, even with hefty subsidies for the poor and the working poor. They have proposed an alternative that would put more of the financial responsibility on employers.

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[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Randy Bayne
THE BAYNE OF BLOG'S CALIFORNIA NOTES

That is the message the California Nurses Association and California School Employees Association would like to get out. There is only one problem, they are being ignored.

The prevailing attitude seems to be that if you just ignore SB 840 and the support it has among a majority of Californians, maybe it will just go away. Legislators aren't listening – with a few exceptions, the Governor has never listened – to the people, and the insurance industry can't hear us over the jingling of their outrageous profits. And, many legislators can't see us over the stacks of cash they receive from the insurance lobby.