Auto Insurance
Whitman Vows to Cut Car Insurance Rates by Curbing Suits
Gov. Christine Todd Whitman said today that New Jersey drivers have for too long paid the nation’s highest automobile insurance rates and proposed legislation that would allow insurers to offer limited coverage for lower premiums.
In her third annual address to the State Legislature, Governor Whitman praised her administration for a range of accomplishments from cutting income taxes to imposing statewide school curriculum standards, but she acknowledged that bringing down auto insurance rates remained one of her biggest challenges.
By vowing to lower auto insurance premiums, Mrs. Whitman sought to address a problem that her Democratic opponents promised to make a campaign issue in this year’s gubernatorial race. In her 50-minute speech, the Governor also struck several other themes to appeal to voters, from the environment to education to crime.
The auto insurance proposal would require insurers to offer four options to drivers, all of which would continue to provide them with $250,000 of coverage for medical expenses and some lost wages. To varying degrees under the plans, drivers would be able to reduce their premiums by abandoning or restricting their ability to seek damages in court for pain and suffering.
Mrs. Whitman said she would also seek to eliminate surcharges that insurance companies impose on bad drivers and on new drivers. And she said she would eliminate automatic annual rate increases now given insurance companies by the state.
In the most recent survey of auto insurance rates, in 1994, the average premium in New Jersey was $964 – $314 above the national average, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. In New York, the average premium was $870, the fifth highest in the country, while Connecticut’s $863 was the sixth highest.
More : query.nytimes.com
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