Insurance Panel Plans TV ‘Town Hall’

Borrowing from Ross Perot’s concept of televised town hall meetings, a legislative committee will invite cable viewers throughout California to call in testimony Wednesday on a radical new automobile insurance proposal.

In the Legislature’s first experimental venture into interactive television, the Senate Insurance Committee will open four toll-free telephone lines during the live broadcast of a hearing so viewers can offer their opinions on the “pay at the pump” insurance plan.

The proposal would eliminate the current method of paying for automobile insurance and replace it with a no-fault system financed by an additional charge on the purchase of gasoline.

The three-hour hearing will be carried on the California Channel starting at 1 p.m., with the final hour set aside for senators to take calls from the public in the style of television talk show hosts such as Larry King and Phil Donahue.

During his presidential campaign, Perot advocated televised national town hall meetings between citizens and the White House to reach consensus on issues.

The insurance committee number will be (800) 773-2568. Although details of the format are undecided, it is likely that callers will be asked to identify themselves at least by occupation.

State Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles), chairman of the committee, indicated that he believes greater participation by Californians may help crack decades of legislative paralysis that has thwarted reform of the costly automobile insurance system.

“It is time to bring the people into the fold, especially those who cannot afford to fly to Sacramento to testify in person,” said Torres, a potential candidate for state insurance commissioner if the Democratic incumbent, John Garamendi, runs for governor.

Paul Koplin, president of the nonprofit California Channel, which serves 2.5 million homes, and Peter Blackshaw, an aide to Torres, said that if the two-way long-distance exchange between the committee and citizens is successful, interactive sessions may become a regular forum for other issues.

Andrew Tobias, author of the new book “Auto Insurance Alert,” said the pay at the pump plan would save Californians, especially low-income motorists, millions of dollars in insurance costs.

Tobias estimated that a driver would pay 30 cents to 40 cents per gallon for a basic medical, liability and collision insurance program. He estimated that insured motorists’ premiums are the equivalent of about 85 cents per gallon.

Koplin said the hearing will be available in Los Angeles to viewers in the Westside and the San Fernando Valley who subscribe to the Century, United Artists and Cencom systems and in Orange County to subscribers of the Dimension system. Continental, the largest cable system in Los Angeles, does not carry the California Channel.