According to the Consumer Watchdog (http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/…), the California citizen-sponsored Proposition 103 saved California drivers almost $62 billion in auto insurance premiums from 1998-2008. In addition to creating an elected insurance commissioner, Prop 103 created a regulatory mechanism to prevent excessive auto insurance premiums.
In the general election November 2012, California voters may have a similar opportunity to reign in the spiraling health insurance rates for individual (as opposed to group) health insurance policies. Currently, signatures are being collected to place an initiative (“Approval of Healthcare Insurance Rate Changes”) on the ballot that would give the California insurance commissioner authority to reject excessive rates. Health insurers would be required to publicly disclose and justify their rates. California is only one of the 17 states that do not have such authority. To be on the ballot, the initiative requires the signatures of 505,000 registered California voters. Copies of the petition may be downloaded at http://www.justifyrates.org.
Of course, qualifying for the ballot is just the first and easiest step. The insurance industry spent almost $64 million in their futile attempt to defeat Proposition 103, and the vehement and rabid hostility to the Affordable Care Act demonstrates the blind (and profitable) allegiance of corporate minions. When Anthem Blue Cross makes $525 million in profit from Californians in one recessionary year (2009) and is able to ship it to its parent, it is obvious that the profits endangered will compel the industry to try everything possible, overtly and surreptitiously, to obfuscate the issues and confuse the voters.