How to Advance Insurance Reform : Powerful Roberti should tap Johnston for key insurance committee chair

Might the resignation in disgrace of state Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys) bring Sacramento to its senses? Certainly one immediate bonus for California’s hard-pressed insurance consumers--whether drivers who pay outrageous premiums for auto coverage or businesses encumbered by big workers’ compensation claims--is a new chair for the pivotal Senate Insurance Committee.

A new chairman could help break the political gridlock that has kept the Legislature from reforming the state’s auto and workers’ comp insurance systems. Robbins, who left office after admitting that he accepted bribes and engaged in other corrupt practices, all too eagerly used his chairmanship of the insurance committee to cultivate the financially powerful lobbyists for the interest groups that helped create that gridlock--the insurance industry on one side and trial lawyers on the other.

It would be inaccurate to suggest that Robbins was solely responsible for the mess. The issues are too complicated--and the existing workers’ comp and auto liability systems far too profitable for too many--for one person or even one committee to control the entire field of play.

But the right person in the right place can make a major difference. That has been proved by state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi. In the year since he became the state’s first elected commissioner, under a key provision of Proposition 103, Garamendi has made more progress on auto insurance reform than his appointed predecessors did. He even got some consumers the Proposition 103 rebate checks many thought they would never see. So the seemingly impossible is sometimes feasible.

Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles), who will appoint Robbins’ successor, says five senators have expressed interest in Robbins’ old post. Roberti recently told a Times reporter that he wants an insurance committee chair “whose No. 1 interest is the voters of the state of California, not the lawyers, not the insurers.”

We take Roberti at his word and suggest that if this is the standard, as well it should be, then the candidate who stands out is Sen. Patrick Johnston (D-Stockton). He has a reputation for integrity and independence in Sacramento and is keenly knowledgeable on insurance issues. Both in the Senate and in the Assembly, where Johnston previously served, he has been in the forefront of efforts to design a no-fault insurance system for California, a key step that would go a long way toward lowering insurance premiums throughout the state.

By picking Johnston, Roberti could make a difference.