Rosenfield Hits No-Fault Plan

Harvey Rosenfield, chairman of Voter Revolt, sponsor of Proposition 103, said Thursday that if a new no-fault insurance initiative is placed on the California ballot next year, he may sponsor an initiative “to establish a publicly run, nonprofit corporation to offer auto insurance in California on an exclusive basis.”

“If the insurers refuse to obey the will of the public, if they refuse to cooperate but instead choose the path of confrontation, they will lose the privilege of serving California consumers altogether,” said Rosenfield, who explained that the initiative would bar private auto insurers from the California market.

He issued his statement in response to a report in Thursday’s Times quoting Allstate Insurance Co. officials as saying that they may join in a coalition with consumers and minority groups to promote a no-frills, no-fault automobile insurance proposal on the 1990 ballot, if the California Legislature refuses to act to establish one this year.

Rosenfield, whose organization is closely aligned with trial lawyers in opposing no-fault and defending the present system of litigating many accident claims, castigated Allstate for “suggesting it is ready to push another no-fault initiative, just seven months after voters rejected such an approach (in 1988) by overwhelming margins.”

Four Canadian provinces have government auto insurance, but no American state has such a system.