Controls are a Good Thing

  
 
The auto insurance companies in North Carolina are pushing to relax the current controls that the insurance commissioner has over the state’s auto insurance industry. Not only that, but the Republicans in the state are helping them do it. They are billing it that this is good news for the state and their rates to have less control, etc., but what it really does is allow the auto insurance companies to raise their rates without anyone telling them that they cannot.
 
The sponsors of the bill say that they are making it so that auto insurance companies would have to be more competitive, but experts say that this is not really the case. They say that instead, all of the controls that are currently in place in the state are there to protect the consumer from the auto insurance companies. Right now the state has the say over how much the auto insurance companies can raise their rates and how much they can charge you overall. They argue that if you remove these controls that the auto insurance companies will now be able to charge you an unlimited amount for your auto insurance just as they can in states that do not have the controls in place.
 
The state’s insurance commission agrees with the experts in that they say that the “insurance companies want more of your money” and that the proposals would “lead to higher car insurance premiums.” They point to the fact that in 2006 the auto insurance companies wanted to raise their rates 7.4 percent, but the insurance commissioner would not let them and allowed a 2.9% increase in auto insurance instead. If you remove the control, you will be paying much more for auto insurance.  North Carolina currently has the lowest rates in the nation because of those controls – remove them and that will no longer be the case.

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