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Harvey Rosenfield (b. 1952) is an American lawyer, author and consumer advocate. In 1985, he founded Consumer Watchdog, a nationally recognized, nonpartisan nonprofit public interest group. He now serves as the group's counsel.

He is best known for drafting, and organizing the campaign for, Proposition 103, a ballot proposal that rolled back automobile insurance rates in California. The Consumer Federation of America estimates that Proposition 103 has saved California consumers $63 billion since 1988.

Today, Rosenfield's consumer advocacy work focuses on insurance company overcharges, patient protection, cell phone problems and consumer rights.

Early life and education
Rosenfield was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1952 and grew up in the middle-class suburb of Randolph. His father was an accountant and his mother, a painter and poet. At Randolph High School in 1970, he was involved in his first grass roots campaign: the "Smoke Out." The campaign encouraged community members to give up smoking for a day and donate the monetary equivalent of a pack of cigarettes to a scholarship fund. Rosenfield's high school guidance counselor, Art Mullaney, originated the idea and Rosenfield attributes his "success to [Mullaney] and a few people like him" who mentored Rosenfield. The group raised $4500 and attracted the attention of the American Cancer Society, which used the "smokeout" theme in its "Great American Smokeout" campaign, beginning in 1977.

In 1970 Rosenfield attended Amherst College and studied psychology, though he later decided to pursue studies in law. After graduating magna cum laud in 1974, Rosenfield moved to Washington, D.C. to intern with Massachusetts Congressman Michael Harrington. In the fall of 1974, he began a joint degree in law and international affairs at Georgetown University.

Early career
In 1976, Rosenfield took a $600 internship with his future mentor, Ralph Nader at Public Citizen, a Washington D.C. citizen advocacy group. And in 1979, after graduating from Georgetown, Rosenfield began working full time for Nader's Public Citizen Congress Watch as an energy lobbyist opposing nuclear power. In the wake of the 1979 oil crisis, Congress was considering a fossil fuels and nuclear strategy for energy independence, and Rosenfield fought for alternative energy sources and environmental conservation.

Nader asked Rosenfield to go to California and help organize the California Public Interest Research Group (CalPIRG) in 1981. As program director, he lobbied on a variety of issues including utility and campaign finance reform and public access to government. The goal was to "bring Nader style advocacy to the West Coast."

Rosenfield resigned from CalPIRG in 1985. But later that year, Nader asked him to campaign against Proposition 51, an insurance industry backed initiative on the California ballot that limited damage claims on lawsuits, which the industry claimed were responsible for skyrocketing insurance rates.

Consumer Watchdog
During the same period he was fighting against Proposition 51, Rosenfield founded Consumer Watchdog (formerly the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights). Proposition 51 passed, but Rosenfield continued to work for insurance rate reductions at 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. Voter Revolt operated on a $2.9 million dollar budget, a fraction of the insurance industry's $63 million dollar 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 got Proposition 103 on the ballot. As well, he attempted to deliver truckloads of cow manure to the headquarters Farmers Insurance of Los Angeles. Rosenfield often referred to insurance companies as "outlaws" during the campaign. These stunts, many 18-hour days, canvassers knocking on 1 million doors, and the high profile endorsement of his mentor, Ralph Nader, helped Voter Revolt pass the initiative in November 1988. The win was seen as a huge blow to the insurance industry. After Proposition 103 passed, Rosenfield told the Wall Street Journal that he gotten inquiries from public interest groups "in at least 30 other states expressing interest in launching Proposition 103-style initiatives."

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 dollars since 1988.

HMO patients' rights
In 1994, during the Clinton healthcare debate, Rosenfield began working to reform the HMO industry. He created Californians for Quality Care and appointed Jamie Court 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 of 1998.

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.

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. Proposition 9 failed due to the $40 million dollar lobbying efforts of the utility industry. Rosenfield claimed his re-regulation efforts could have helped deter the California Energy Crisis exploited by Enron in 2001. Rosenfield talks about the situation in the 2005 documentary, The Smartest Guys in the Room.

Proposition 17
During 2010, Rosenfield opposed Proposition 17, a $16 million attempt by Mercury Insurance Group to repeal a key provision of Proposition 103. Rosenfield "argued that the measure would have allowed Mercury and other companies to impose surcharges of as much as $1,000 on drivers who have not had continuous coverage." To raise awareness of the fact that an insurance company was trying to hide its sponsorship of Proposition 17, and its CEO was afraid to debate the merits of the proposal in public, the group sent a man in a chicken suit to legislative hearings on the measure. The group was outspent 12-to-1, but the measure was defeated on June 8, 2010.

Consumer Education Foundation
Rosenfield currently serves as President of the Consumer Education Foundation. The group maintains a website called Where's Our Money? that discusses the financial crisis of 2008.

Works
Rosenfield wrote Silent Violence, Silent Death: The Hidden Epidemic of Medical Malpractice in 1994. Published by Essential Books, the book outlines the extent of the medical malpractice in the United States, and how consumers can protect themselves from this threat. He has written many articles for newspapers.

Awards

 * Top 100 California Political Power Brokers by Capitol Weekly
 * California Lawyer of the Year
 * Top 100 Litigators in California by Los Angeles Daily Journal
 * Honorary Degree from Amherst College
 * Speaking Truth to Power by the California Nurses Association

Personal
Rosenfield lives in Los Angeles, California with his wife, author Georgia Bragg. The couple have two children.