Car Insurance Premiums High? Blame the Uninsured, Lawsuits : Californians have yet to reap rewards of Prop. 103 rollbacks. The Legislature could give teeth to existing laws and crack down on fraud, scofflaws.

It’s been a half decade since Californians passed Proposition 103 to roll back soaring auto insurance premiums. The relief that motorists sought has yet to materialize.

Consider that in Orange County the minimum liability coverage required by the state’s mandatory insurance law alone costs $800 a year on average. Between 1984 and 1991, auto insurance premiums paid by California motorists more than doubled.

It’s little wonder that drivers are fed up.

It’s popular chatter among state legislators, consumer advocacy groups and legal associations to blame “profit-mongering” insurance companies for the dizzying rise in auto insurance premiums. Such an assertion is as false as it is populist rhetoric.

Californians still don’t have fair and affordable automobile insurance because the two major political battles waged to bring sanity to the cost of insurance-- Proposition 103 and the now-defunct “pay-at-the-pump” system--failed to tackle the three principal culprits responsible for soaring premiums: The swelling ranks of uninsured motorists, spiraling medical costs and crippling monetary rewards in liability court cases.

This is not to say that achieving accessible, affordable coverage is a pipe dream. It does mean that if Californians truly want less expensive auto policies, it will be up to them to push their state representatives to craft realistic solutions to these three problems.

Here’s how they could start:

California’s mandatory insurance law--while sound in principle--is a weak, ineffective and unenforceable code as currently written. The proof is in the numbers. Of the state’s 20 million motorists, more than 25% are uninsured. In major metropolitan centers, the ranks of uninsured drivers is 50%. So, you pay higher premiums to make up for the cost of claims for accidents involving uninsured drivers.

If the state’s mandatory insurance law is to work, it should be given teeth. One solution: Require proof of insurance at the time of vehicle registration or driver’s-license renewal. This hardly seems unreasonable, considering there are some states that permit the confiscation of license plates during traffic stops if the driver has no proof of insurance.

Two other culprits feeding premium hikes are runaway liability damages awarded in court cases and soaring medical claims that are frequently fraudulent.

Consider that in the seven-year period when premiums paid by California motorists jumped from $5.5 billion to $12 billion, the state’s auto insurers saw liability and medical claims they paid nearly double from $2.7 billion in 1984 to $5.2 billion in 1991. Moreover, the amount of claims they covered to repair automobiles, many of those belonging to their own customers struck by uninsured motorists, also rose from $1.5 billion to $2.2 billion between 1984 and 1991.

A stand-alone, no-fault insurance law would eliminate liability suits, runaway damage awards, legal fees and court costs which accounted for more than $12 billion in payouts and loss expenditures in 1991 when insurance companies took in only $12 billion in premiums.

Californians should also demand that state lawmakers get tough on medical and accident claims fraud, and insist upon a universal medical costs schedule for auto accident injuries.

Motorists must grasp the incredible impact uninsured drivers, unbridled litigation and fraudulent medical claims have on the price they pay for their auto insurance.

They should not buy into the rhetoric that high premiums are the gremlins of greedy insurance underwriters.

Failing to that, it’s unlikely they’ll find any relief.