Consumer Groups Unite to Track Insurance Prices
New York Times
July 30, 2002

With premiums soaring for almost every kind of insurance, more than 60 consumer organizations around the country have banded together to mount a campaign against what they regard as price gouging. The consumer groups have named their organization Americans for Insurance Reform and say that by uniting they expect to have a stronger voice and to be more quickly able to gather information on developments in insurance, which is regulated state by state.

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J. Robert Hunter, the director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of America, and a founder of the new organization, estimates that prices for standard commercial coverages, medical malpractice insurance and home insurance are two times higher than justified by the insurers' losses. He said the insurers are also raising prices indirectly through higher deductibles and generally reducing coverage.

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The consumer groups say they are concerned that Congress and state legislatures may respond to the higher prices by limiting the ability of consumers to recover damages through the courts. President Bush urged just such a solution last week and this week the Senate is considering legislation on the issue.

"It is not lawsuits that are driving this problem," said Joanne Doroshow, the executive director of the Center for Justice and Democracy in Manhattan, a national consumer group that focuses on the civil courts. "This is a problem that has to do with the business practices of the industry as a whole."

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