California Insider

Rate regulation -- or some method to guarantee that any savings wrung out of workers, lawyers or doctors in the workers comp system are passed along to employers -- is the hot topic these days among those watching the unfolding negotiations aimed at overhaulding the system. Here is my column on the subject today, in which I suggest that Republicans might have boxed themselves into a corner by pushing for rate cuts that they can't be sure of delivering. And here is a Chronicle story on Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi's proposal for rate regulation.

With the millionaire's tax for mental health all but qualified for the November ballot, the phone tax for emergency rooms is next. Organizers say they have enough signatures to place the measure ont he ballot but will continue to collect more to ensure that they have enough to create the necessary cushion. This one expands the 911 surcharge -- originally created to pay for the emergency response network -- to finance emergency room care. The theory: what good is a 911 system if when you call an ambulance, there's no place to take you. The tax would raise more than $500 million a year, hitting wireless phone and business users the hardest. Here is an update from the North County Times.