During the same period he was fighting against Proposition 51, Rosenfield founded
Consumer Watchdog (originally the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights). Proposition 51 passed, but Rosenfield continued to work for insurance rate reductions with his newly formed
public interest group. After researching the issue, Rosenfield believed insurance regulation was the only solution to rising rates. In response, Rosenfield drafted new insurance reform legislation, which insurance industry lobbyists killed in the state capitol.
Proposition 103 In 1987, Rosenfield began to write a ballot box proposal and formed a campaign to sponsor it called Voter Revolt. The proposal turned into insurance reform Proposition 103 and promised voters a minimum 20% rollback in rates for property, auto and other kinds of insurance. It also required insurance companies to follow the state's consumer protection and civil rights laws. Voter Revolt operated on a $2.9 million budget, a fraction of the insurance industry's $63 million lobbying and advertising effort. The insurance industry, fearing they would not be able to defeat Proposition 103, launched three competing initiative measures in an attempt to confuse voters. To bring attention to his cause, Rosenfield used grassroots publicity stunts like having guards accompany him while he delivered the signatures that put Proposition 103 on the ballot. As well, he attempted to deliver truckloads of
cow manure to the headquarters Farmers Insurance of Los Angeles. Since then, Rosenfield, and his colleagues at
Consumer Watchdog defended Proposition 103 from insurance industry attacks and ensured the proposition's implementation. In 2008, the Consumer Federation for America estimated that Proposition 103 had saved consumers over $63 billion since 1988. Using insurance industry data, CFA found that "between 1989 and 2010, auto insurance premiums actually dropped by 0.3%, while they rose 43.3% nationally during that period. California was the only state in the nation where prices dropped over the 22 year period." Rosenfield opposed Proposition 17, a $16 million attempt by
Mercury Insurance Group to repeal a key provision of Proposition 103 in 2010; it was defeated. The company spent another $17 million on a very similar initiative in 2012; it too was defeated. In 2012, an initiative to control health insurance costs similarly to Prop 103 received over 800,000 signatures and earned a place on the 2014 ballot. However, critics of California Proposition 103 claim it is responsible for California's insurance crisis. In March 2024, the editorial board of the
Orange County Register called for its repeal, saying "Prop. 103 didn't solve California's insurance problems, but made them worse. Time to cancel it." Proposition 103's benefits to policyholders have been questioned by independent researchers, including the International Center for Law & Economics. Contrary to claims that Proposition 103 saved Californians as much as $154 billion in auto insurance premiums from 1989 to 2015, it found that Californians would have saved nearly $25 billion if they had not passed Proposition 103.
Health Care Reform and HMO patients' rights In 1994, during the Clinton healthcare debate, Rosenfield began working to reform the HMO industry. He and his colleague
Jamie Court created Californians for Quality Care (a division of Consumer Watchdog) to spearhead the effort. In 1996, the group worked to have the nation's first "patients' bill of rights" proposition placed on the California ballot. However,
Proposition 216 failed to pass, garnering only 38.7% of the vote. In 1998, the group proposed additional HMO patient's rights legislation. To bring attention to the issue, the group dumped a truck load of pinto beans at an HMO industry conference to emphasize Consumer Watchdog's opposition to HMO "bean counters" overriding doctors' decisions. Most of the legislative package later passed with the help of the
California Nurses Association in November 1998.{{cite web |title=WHO'S WHO---Local Forces Playing Key Roles in Patient Rights Issue As a result, California has the strongest HMO patient protection laws in America. Many of the provisions of California's bill were included in the national
U.S. Patients' Bill of Rights act, which passed Congress in 2001. In the 2000s, Consumer Watchdog worked to extend Proposition 103's rate protections to health insurance. After the California Legislature repeatedly rejected the legislation, the organization placed the proposal on the November 2014 ballot.
Energy Regulation Rosenfield co-authored Proposition 9 in 1998, a ballot initiative to block aspects of the utility deregulation laws passed by California lawmakers in 1996.{{cite web |url=https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/STATE-PROPOSITIONS-Proposition-9-2982640.php|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130202074531/http://articles.sfgate.com/1998-10-25/news/17733562_1_utility-rate-reduction-utility-companies-sierra-club|url-status=live|archive-date=February 2, 2013|title=STATE PROPOSITIONS / Proposition 9 Proposition 9 failed due to the $40 million lobbying efforts of the utility industry. Rosenfield claimed his re-regulation efforts could have helped deter the California Energy Crisis exploited by
Enron and other energy companies in 2001. Rosenfield talks about the situation in the 2005 documentary,
The Smartest Guys in the Room.
Litigation Rosenfield is a lawyer in consumer protection lawsuits brought by Consumer Watchdog's legal team challenging abusive practices by companies in the insurance, health care, automobile, cell phone, and satellite television industries, as well as government agencies that violate laws. He also works with Consumer Watchdog in administrative and judicial proceedings to lower insurance rates and enforce Proposition 103. ==Consumer Education Foundation==