Statement as candidate for Insurance Commissioner - June 1998
by Tom Condit
May 16, 1998
Ten years after the passage of Proposition 103, insurance company redlining in property and automobile liability insurance continues, and giant HMOs dominate our health care system.We know from the experience of Canadians that public-sector automobile and health insurance are cheaper and better than our bloated corporate bureaucracies can provide.
Our present system of auto insurance charges drivers in cities higher rates because of traffic congestion caused by suburban commuters. It makes the cost of just owning a car so high in comparison to operating costs that it's cheaper to use it than to take public transportation.
We need a state auto insurance fund, covering basic liability and property damage and financed by a surcharge on gasoline at the service station pump. Those who use their Honda three times a week to go to the grocery store and the laundromat will pay less for insurance than commuters with sports utility vehicles, not more as they now do. It would be environmentally responsible, charging people for the fossil fuels they used instead of for owning a car.
We need a single universal system of quality health care, financed by the state without insurance company red tape and overhead. Public insurance is cheaper and delivers better service than corporations can provide. It doesn't need million-dollar CEOs, television advertising, or stock dividends.
We can't make fundamental changes in our greed-driven society just by voting every two years. We need to work with our friends, our neighbors and our fellow workers to figure out what society really needs and how we can get it.
We owe each other promises as members of society — to heal the sick, to care for the aged, to educate the children. It's time to build a democratic working-class movement which will keep those promises.