January 27, 1998 Friends, I have made a startling discovery with regards to the California Insurance Commission's television announcements with Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush speaking that were seen by California viewers in the past several months. It was my discovery that some of televised announcements were about Proposition 103 rebates. Californians who either purchased or renewed their insurance policies between November 1988 through November 1989 are entitled to a rebate as mandated by Proposition 103. These rebates average 10 dollars each person who were insured in California during that period. What ticked me off is that NONE of these televised announcements were closed captioned nor did they have the TDD hotline number!!! The insurance commission is a government entity and they're required to have their televised announcements closed captioned. Televised announcements were scheduled to end last December and some television stations still voluntarily rebroadcasting the announcements as of last week without the TDD hotline or captions. By not including closed captioning and the TDD number, the California Insurance Commission is depriving the Deaf community in California of an opportunity to get a rebate. With a large Deaf/Hard of hearing population in California our losses from this act of ignorance could run up to the millions! I'm basing this on the fact the state insurance commission had discontinued these announcements and from this point on and the Deaf/Hard of hearing will not be able to know about this any other means except from reading this post. All policyholders who were insured in California from November 1988 through November 1989 should contact the insurance commission for a possible rebate right now! They will also need the name of their insurance carrier they had during the November 1988 - November 1989 period. Those outside California and those in the California area codes 213 and 310 is (213) 897-8921. The number for the rest of California is 1 (800) 927-HELP (4357). Their toll free TDD hotline is (800)482-4TDD (4833). The hours are from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. PST/PDT. The Consumer Communications Bureau chief is David Langenbacher and the mailing address is: 300 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA 90013. For those with internet access, their website is at this location http://www.insurance.ca.gov/docs/index.html. Contact your insurance company first and request they review their records to determine if a rebate was paid. If the company’s records indicate your rebate was escheated to the state you should contact the State Controller at 1-800-992-4647 or at coucp@vmmail.teale.ca.gov to inquire about your rebate. After asking the California Insurance Commission why they were not broadcasting their televised announcements with closed captions and TDD hotline number, they responded last night through their press department spokesperson Jeff Kenney: "First of all the state contracts with a variety of private firms and the placing of such television ads and the inclusion of TDD information and/or closed captioning has been seen in a couple of examples and hasn't necessarily been the standard and as a result of raising the issue with a couple of private firms this is a request for TDD and closed captioning will be brought up by the private firms early in contract negotiations as a department. California Department of Insurance will use closed captioning in all future ads as well list the TDD line for the consumer and that number is (800)482-4833 and hopefully the newsletter you are writing will increase the awareness of others as well." When asked if they could extend the deadline to let Deaf consumers the opportunity to get a rebate, their response was: "I dont believe the deadline will be extended but as stated before we will use closed captioning and TDD line in future ads" When advised of the potential reaction from the Deaf community they responded: "First of all the information wasn't omitted intentionally and secondly it was state agencies cost for consumer outreach are usually specified in type so prior to another contract negotiation this will of course be taken into consideration" My apologies to those who received multiple copies of this post through multiple lists. It is important this information is spread throughout as the insurance commission is not going to run these ads anymore. This morning the state controller's office told me that there is no deadline to get a rebate that has been escheated which is strikingly different from the press spokesman's answer. Always Yours, Richard Roehm Deaf Watch Newsletter ,,, (o o) ===oOO==(_)==OOo=================================================== DEAF WATCH Orange County, California Richard Roehm Chief Editor Internet : Deaf@activist.com Nesmuth@hwsys.com Nesmuth@concentric.net DEAF WATCH Http://www.deafwatch.com .oooO Oooo. Http://home.hwsys.com/users/roehm/deaf.htm ====( )==( )=================================================== \ ( ) / \_) (_/ Deaf Watch will continue to aggressively pursue justice, fairness, and equality for the Deaf Community as it has been doing since November 1996. We have chosen that EDUCATION is the best way accomplish this objective.