"That was about $30 million in savings to the system," Harrington said. "If we commit the same type of resources to fight fraud like we did in Lawrence, it could dramatically take fraud out of the system."

Harrington supports Romney's proposals to change how insurance rates are set and to allow companies to use "assigned risk," enabling them to factor in all sorts of criteria to determine who is a bad driver.

Some insurance companies al-ready operating in Massachusetts, including Arbella and Commerce Insurance, oppose assigned risk, saying that the state should not change its rules to accommodate large, national companies, said Doug Bailey, spokesman for the Massachusetts Coalition for Affordable Auto Insurance for All.

The governor's bill calls for competitive rating, in which companies would submit rates to the state for approval, instead of continuing to allow the state insurance commissioner to set the rate herself.

"We have here bad weather, aggressive drivers, unfriendly attitudes, a high concentration of trial lawyers and chiropractors, congested streets and a propensity to sue," said state Sen. Andrea F. Nuciforo Jr., D-Pittsfield. "Given those things, we shouldn't expect to pay rates like those in Iowa."

The Joint Committee on Finan-cial Services, which is reviewing several bills related to auto insurance, is expected to release some type of reform bill in May, after budget debates.

Mariano strongly supports assigned risk, though he said he "hasn't made a decision yet" on how best to protect state drivers from unfair classifications.

Mariano said he is unsure whether fraud prevention programs in other cities will pan out as they did in Lawrence, while Nuciforo said a strong attack on fraud will help drive down premiums.

This is cache, read story here