North Carolina legislatures have decided to wait till 2013 to bring about any major changes in the auto insurance laws. However, the Automotive Insurance Modernization Committee that is not very happy with this move has requested for certain changes at the earliest to restructure the high risk drivers in the state and also set a particular method for calculating the auto insurance premiums. This decision by the committee came into spotlight after Wayne Goodwin, the Insurance Commissioner in the state, announced that drivers in North Carolina will not see any difference in their auto insurance premiums in 2012.
Over the last few years, a number of auto insurance reforms have been discussed by the lawmakers though they have not been able to reach a consensus about the changes that need to be brought about. The fact that the auto insurance industry has split views about the changes that are needed have added to the complexity of this issue. The insurance commissioner, Wayne Goodwin, has been consistently opposing any changes to the process of calculating auto insurance premiums.
Senator Tom Apodaca said that though he agreed that certain changes needed to be brought about, he does not think that there are major changes needed to curtail the growing competition in the industry. Speaking to reporters, he told that, the rates for the good drivers in the state can be brought down, though he was not sure about the reforms that would bring about this change.
Nearly 25 percent of the drivers in the state of North Carolina fall under the high risk category and pay close to 30 percent more than the other safe drivers. Though the remaining 75 percent of the drivers fall under the high risk criteria, they fall under the ‘clean risk’ category and are not offered coverage by private insurance providers because of the underwriting criteria governing auto insurance. Individuals who work in the military, have a low credit score or are unemployed fall under the high risk category by default though they might have an impeccable driving record.
