Word: denenberg
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Dates: during 1972-1972
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...chairman of a billion-dollar insurance company shouts "Denenberg!" whenever he misses a putt on the golf course because that is the nastiest oath he knows. Other insurance leaders as well as some hospital administrators, doctors, trial lawyers and auto-company executives can barely repress their anger whenever they hear the name. Of all the meddling bureaucrats and thorn-in-the-side consumer advocates who afflict big business, none is so infuriating as Herbert Sidney Denenberg, the insurance commissioner of Pennsylvania...
Insurance commissioners are often bland political appointees who rubber-stamp rate increases, but Denenberg is doing his belligerent best to shake and change the industry. In his first 18 months in office, the red-haired former professor, 42, has made remarkable progress. Ralph Nader, who recommended Denenberg for the job, predicts that he will be "the most outstanding commissioner that the country has ever had." Pennsylvania Governor Milton Shapp, who is often overshadowed by his headline-making employee, tells audiences jestingly: "You may not know me, but I'm the guy who brought Herb Denenberg to Harrisburg...
...Denenberg's most famous actions was to publish "shopper's guides" showing comparative costs of life and auto insurance policies. The life-policy version (see box) revealed great price variations for roughly the same kinds of coverage. Policy buyers and other state insurance commissioners have sent for more than 50,000 copies of the free guides, and publishers are retailing copies...
Over his desk, Denenberg has placed the Latin motto Populus iamdudum defutatus est, which he translates as "The consumer has been screwed long enough." To help beleaguered buyers, Denenberg has ordered all the 1,157 insurance companies that do business in Pennsylvania to appoint ombudsmen to hear consumer complaints. He has sent traveling teams of investigators to hear gripes from policyholders in small communities throughout the state. Consumer complaints are pouring in to Denenberg's office at an annual rate of 50,000, up from 25,000 in 1971. He has conducted televised hearings and investigations on just about...
...facet of insurance has escaped him. When Denenberg became upset over the difficulty of replacing a taillight on his state-owned Buick Le Sabre, he made the extravagant charge that General Motors designers made cars hard to repair in order to drive up repair costs for the benefit of dealers and parts manufacturers. With that, G.M. sent two executives to Harrisburg to inspect Denenberg's car. (They claimed it had suffered a "rear impact" that complicated repair of the taillight.) Denenberg has called the present system for paying auto-accident claims "a legalized racket," noting that the Pennsylvania state...