Editorials
Tuesday, August 13, 1996
Rate relief for Hawaii drivers
and businesses
WORKERS' compensation insurance and auto insurance have been heavy burdens for Hawaii businesses and consumers. State rates have been among the highest in the country in recent years. Attempts to improve the laws and make it possible to bring rates down have been given high priority in the Legislature. Now those efforts are yielding modest dividends.
The National Council on Compensation Insurance, which represents the insurance industry, is asking the state to approve a 21.7 percent reduction in rates for companies in the high-risk pool, which now includes more than one-third of all Hawaii businesses. In addition, the industry figures that workers' compensation losses for other companies have dropped an average of 23.4 percent. This is the result of a reduction in the frequency and size of claims, and means that companies should be able to reduce premiums. That is very good news for business because workers' comp rates have been a big problem.
The second installment of the good news package concerns auto insurance. The state's second largest auto insurer, AIG Hawaii Insurance Co., has filed a request to reduce rates an average of nearly 10 percent. AIG cites reduced medical payments resulting from industry reforms mandated by the state last year and in 1992. The medical fee schedule has been lowered to match workers' comp rates, which were cut last year.
Governor Cayetano was so encouraged that he urged other insurers to lower their rates as well, claiming that some have been making as much as 20 percent profit. No mention of years when they lost money, of course. It seems a good bet that if one insurer wants to lower its rates, others will follow.
This should give Hawaii's long-suffering motorists some relief, but like the business people complaining about the cost of workers' comp they want more. The Legislature will be pressed to find a way to bring rates in both areas down further in next year's session.
But lawmakers should reject Cayetano's urging to scrap the no-fault system. Getting tough with people who drive without insurance would help. Similarly, cracking down on fraud in workers' comp could save big money.
Buchanan's brigade
AN independent presidential run by Pat Buchanan, defeated in the Republican primary elections, could have been devastating to Bob Dole's candidacy. Buchanan's endorsement of the GOP ticket, although lacking enthusiasm, was needed to avert a possible convention floor fight and a splintering of the party's conservative wing, its most activist element.
Dole can be thankful that Buchanan has urged his followers to remain in the party. Behind in the polls, Dole cannot afford any Republican defections.
Same-sex marriage
WHILE the nation awaits the Hawaii Supreme Court's decision on same-sex marriage, a judge in Oregon has given homosexuals a victory on a related issue. Judge Stephen Gallagher ruled that the Oregon Employees' Benefit Board violated the state constitution by denying spousal benefits to three lesbian couples. He ordered the state to offer medical, dental and life insurance benefits to the partners of homosexual state employees.
Public opinion remains strongly opposed to same-sex marriage, but judges are - or should be - less sensitive to public opinion than politicians. The Oregon ruling demonstrates that Hawaii's Supreme Court justices have some company on the bench on this issue.
Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited Partnership
Rupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor