No on Proposition 44

Since the 1960s, Californians have been asked to vote on increasingly numerous, complex and often inscrutable voter initiatives. Nine statewide propositions made it to the ballot in the 1960s, and 62 in the 1990s. Some have been models of direct democracy. Far too many have been a waste of voters’ time. A case in point is Proposition 44, on the March 5 ballot, which would stiffen professional penalties against chiropractors convicted of insurance fraud.

The measure nips at a real problem, but in a way that’s ultimately corrosive of democracy and good government. Voters should not have to regulate medical professions. We recommend a “no” vote on Proposition 44.

Proposition 44 has its origin in a state Senate hearing two years ago in which a number of witnesses, including one disguised by a hood, testified about how lawyers, doctors and chiropractors create and process hundreds of millions of dollars in phony auto insurance injury claims every year, driving up insurance rates and sometimes causing serious actual injury when the fraud rings orchestrate crashes.

After the hearing, legislators beefed up penalties against doctors and lawyers who hire ambulance chasers and others to hawk services to recent accident victims. They tried to tighten the reins on chiropractors too, but couldn’t because in 1922 chiropractors had persuaded Californians to pass a constitutional amendment requiring voters to approve changes in state oversight of their profession.

At the time, physicians skeptical of chiropractors had indeed tried to prevent legislators from licensing the profession. Today, however, chiropractic medicine is accepted, and the 1922 law is an anachronism.

Proposition 44, by curing a small problem, allows the Legislature to ignore the big one. It requires voters, most of whom do not know a solar plexus from a sacroiliac, to decide “professional” chiropractic behavior.

The measure is also written in inscrutable legalisms.

Voters will have to face the issue once more to cure it. Legislators must put on the ballot, as soon as feasible, an initiative changing the state Constitution so that chiropractors are regulated like doctors, lawyers and other professionals by experts in their field.

Vote “no” on Proposition 44, then demand that state lawmakers act to remove chiropractic regulation from the Constitution.

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To take action: State Sen. Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough), author of Proposition 44: (916) 445-0503 or e-mail Senator.Speier@sen.ca.gov; Senate President pro tem John Burton (D-San Francisco), (916) 445-1412 (no e-mail).