Auto Insurance
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A top official at Commerce Insurance yesterday said Governor Mitt Romney is trying to fuel his presidential ambitions with an auto insurance proposal that would line the pockets of big national insurers at the expense of Massachusetts drivers.
James A. Ermilio, senior vice president and legal counsel at the state’s largest auto insurer, said the bill Romney filed last week would offer no real savings for consumers and would instead lead to higher rates, particularly for two groups: youthful drivers and urban drivers.
“It’s quite clear it’s an effort to line the pockets of national insurance companies,” Ermilio said. “My guess is the governor hopes to garner financial support from the companies as he makes plans…
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Ruling Sets Back Effort To Overhaul Massachusetts Auto Insurance System.
A state judge yesterday sent the Romney administration back to square one in its pursuit of a new auto insurance system, ruling the insurance commissioner exceeded her authority in approving a new method for assigning an estimated 1 million high-risk drivers to companies.
The decision is likely to bog down efforts by Romney to revamp the state’s heavily regulated auto insurance system. It means all reform proposals must first be approved by the Legislature, where opponents of change wield considerable clout.
“It’s a blow to the efforts to revamp the state’s auto insurance system,” said Representative Ronald Mariano, the Quincy Democrat who heads the Legislature’s Committee on Financial Services and previously served on a Romney task force on auto insurance.
Mariano said political pressure for changing the auto insurance…
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Massachusetts governor pushes for auto insurance changes.
Governor Mitt Romney yesterday called on the Legislature to scrap the state’s “Soviet-style” auto insurance system and replace it with a hybrid model that would give companies more flexibility in setting rates under oversight from state regulators.
Romney envisions moving toward a system under which companies could largely set their own premiums after a five-year transition period during which they would have greater and greater pricing flexibility.
Currently, state regulators set all auto insurance rates.
Romney said his bill would guarantee the two-thirds of Massachusetts drivers with clean records a 5 percent rate reduction next year, and rates within state-approved ranges the following three years. One-third of drivers could face significant price increases, although their liability coverages would be allowed to rise only 15 percent each year.
The promise of a 5 percent cut, or…
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Auto insurance reform panel is on a slow road.
Governor Mitt Romney’s bid to revamp the state’s auto insurance system is running behind schedule, bogged down by a lawsuit filed by the state’s leading insurer and a slow-moving task force plagued by political infighting and the complexity of the task.
The lack of progress was evident yesterday when Insurance Commissioner Julianne M. Bowler held her annual hearing on whether she should stop setting auto insurance rates.
Regulators and industry officials, who last year had hoped to be moving toward a competitive system by now, acknowledged yesterday that progress has been slow and the…
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Atlanta cabdrivers back on streets despite insurance scam shutdown fears.
One day after an alleged auto insurance scam threatened to stall the area’s taxi system, Atlanta’s cabdrivers were out in full force Wednesday, picking up fares and jetting to and from the airport.
While the city may have escaped a cab grounding, some of its limousine and shuttle services were still scrambling to find insurance Wednesday.
The state’s Insurance Commission listed at least 30 metro Atlanta limousine and shuttle services on its Web site that were insured through companies owned by Godfrey and Robert Waterhouse. The father-son team is accused of bilking millions from limousine, cab and airport shuttle drivers across the state.
According to city officials, of the 1,600 taxicabs operating in…
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USAA to trim auto insurance rates 5 percent.
COPYRIGHT 2006 San Antonio Express-News
Byline: Travis E. Poling
Jun. 15–USAA is trimming its auto insurance rates in the San Antonio area by an average of 5 percent and up to 15 percent for some drivers.
A spokesman for the San Antonio-based insurance and financial services company said the reductions stem from improvements in its productivity.
Driving the…
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Affordable premiums: Low-cost auto insurance now in San Joaquin.
San Joaquin County residents who qualify can purchase the state’s bare-minimum required automobile-liability insurance for $295 per year.
“That’s a pretty good rate,” said Jagmohan Singh, an agent with Amar Insurance in French Camp who is certified to sell the policy.
Good drivers with incomes of no more than $24,500 for an individual or $50,000 for a family of four whose vehicle is valued at $20,000 or less and who live in the county are eligible.
To sign up, consumers should call the California Automobile Assigned Risk Plan toll-free at (866) 602-8861 and be prepared to answer 10 questions regarding eligibility.
“That sounds fantastic. Sign me up now,” an enthused Maria Leonardo said after learning of the program’s availability in her newly adopted county.
Leonardo,…
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The truth about insurance reform? It’s a matter of which ad you watch.
Auto insurance isn’t a front-burner issue right now for most consumers, but two warring industry groups are doing their best to whip up a public frenzy.
The two groups, operating with innocuous-sounding names that give no hint of the companies bankrolling them, are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on TV and radio ads that twist the facts to their own advantage.
The ads, which will only intensify if a bill ever emerges from the Legislature’s Financial Services Committee, appear to be aimed more at state lawmakers than the driving public. Lawmakers, even within that committee, are split on the need for change, while drivers, with auto insurance rates falling and expected to keep falling next year, are not clamoring for it either.
“This is not being driven by clients screaming about their rates,” said Henry Risman, president of Risman Insurance Agency in Medford and Byette Insurance Agency in Tewksbury. “There’s no demand for reform.”
The fight over auto…
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Low-cost auto insurance program to expand to Sacramento.
State Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi will expand California’s low-cost automobile insurance program to eight additional counties, including Sacramento, later this year.
On Monday, Garamendi announced plans to include Sacramento, Imperial, Kern, Contra Costa, San Mateo, Santa Clara, San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties in the program….
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State’s auto insurers to seek 3.7 percent rate cut.
Massachusetts automobile insurers plan to seek a 3.7 percent reduction in their rates for 2007, according to three officials involved in the deliberations, making it the second year in a row the companies have asked state regulators to cut the size of their premiums.
The industry request means drivers will be guaranteed a rate reduction next year, and the odds are very good that the size of the cut will be much bigger when the state insurance commissioner sets the final rate in December. A reduction of 10 to 15 percent is possible, which would shave $100 to $149 off the current statewide average premium of $995.
Last year, the industry requested a 0.1 percent reduction in 2006 rates, the first time the companies had ever asked for a decrease. The insurance commissioner ultimately approved an 8.7 percent reduction, which cut…
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