WHAT INFORMATION DOES INSURANCE COMPANIES USE TO CALCULATE RATES?

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Senate Majority Leader Fred Berry, D-Peabody, yesterday blasted the governor's plans for deregulating the way automobile insurance rates are set.

The administration's plan came under scrutiny yesterday when consumer groups and lawmakers filed legislation requiring insurers to set rates based only on a person's driving record and not financial or homeowner status.

Berry said Insurance Commissioner Nonnie S. Burnes, a judge before she was appointed commissioner earlier this year, was "totally off track" for recently approving rules that forbade the use of credit scoring when setting rates but did not prohibit those other factors.

"I think the judge has been misled," Berry said. "I'm concerned. There's evidence that Geico and Progressive and other insurers use these variables that should not be used when calculating insurance rates."

He also took aim at the administration, pointing out that, in 1977, the Dukakis administration approved a deregulation plan that caused urban drivers' rates to soar. Berry represents the cities of Peabody and Salem.[...]