New Insurance Laws?

[wordsmythe]

http://www.cjonline.com/stories/0104...nsurance.shtml

Bills would toughen auto insurance rules

Keeping uninsured motorists off Kansas roadways is the goal of a pair of Senate bills that will be considered after the Legislature convenes Monday.

One bill helps the state keep better track of those who drive without required liability insurance, and the other imposes stiffer penalties for those who do.

The Department of Insurance estimates about 10 percent of the nearly 2 million licensed drivers in the state don't have the required coverage.

"We all are paying the costs of damages and injuries by uninsured motorists," said Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt. "The costs are shifted to those who pay for insurance. It results in higher premiums for everyone who pays."

The bills are sponsored by Schmidt, R-Independence, and Sen. Ruth Teichman, R-Stafford, who heads the Senate Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee.

Schmidt said Tuesday the legislation requires insurance companies to notify the Department of Revenue when a policyholder either cancels coverage or gets a new policy. He said state computer can track the changes to find those who canceled a policy but didn't get a new one.

"The technology has reached the point where we can do this without hassling the driver," Schmidt said.

He said the proposal is similar to a law that went into effect Jan. 1 in Kentucky, and that several other states are considering similar ideas.

The other bill provides tougher civil and criminal penalties for motorists who intentionally drive without insurance. Currently, first-time offenders face fines from $300 to $1,000, plus the loss of car tags and driver's license, both of which can be reinstated by paying a fee and showing proof of insurance.

Under the proposal, a third conviction of driving without insurance would be a felony rather than misdemeanor, and if an uninsured motorist kills someone in a traffic accident, the charge would be murder instead of manslaughter, Schmidt said.

He said a person injured by an uninsured motorist could get triple damages instead of ordinary damages in a civil judgment.

[K C Muffin]

Well, the party injured by an uninsured driver can be AWARDED triple damages, but most often, the uninsured driver is such because he can't afford insurance or is not a legal resident. That makes collection of the triple damages pretty unlikely.

Us in the insurance field applaud the law makers idea to do this in Kansas. It's been done in New York State for some time - but by hand and not by computer, causing huge headaches for the insuror. If this can be tracked easily and inexpensively by a computer, it only makes sense to implement it and get uninsured drivers off the road. The way it is now, though, if you get a ticket for not producing an insurance card at the scene, you simply produce one for the court and the charge is dismissed. I'm not sure anyone really looks at the effective and expiration date on the card, though. Doesn't do much good to prove you had insurance 6 months before the accident or ticket!

I'm all for it - I carry insurance and it's the law - so everyone should do it!

[Made in the USA]

Some of the insurance companies here in Dodge, sell alot of "one day" policies!! I can see it now, alot of new "Pancho's Insurance Co's" springing up to keep up with the 40 car lots in DC!!

[K C Muffin]

Those in Dodge are insurance agencies. They represent the insured to buy coverage from a company. There aren't any companies out that way anymore - used to be. There are some agents who will sell a monthly or quarterly policy, though........the problem comes when that policy's cancelled for non payment of premium or just not renewed. Nobody seems to know. The computer tracking would help.

[Lone Gunman]

Many times they get insurance in order to buya tag, when they get the card it says it's good for 6 months they only pay one month get canceled but the card still says they're insured. When they get stopped the officer sees the card saying it's good and he's none the wiser, he has no way of knowing.

[lurker]

The short answer is to include the price of liability insurance in the price of fuel. The more you drive, the more your exposure, the more you pay.

Oh that won't work. We'll exclude some agencies out of their 'right' to sell insurance. And it won't be a national coverage.... that's right. It will have to be a wholesale change in acquiring coverage.

What about bad drivers? Who TF cares about a driver's record when your car is crashed and the other party has no coverage... Who TF cares about a driver's record when you have medical bills due and payable; but the other party has left the country.... but the fuel surcharge will provide an amount of coverage equal to your expenses...

What insurance protects is a person's assets. Those with appreciable assets will include a rider policy to cover what could be attached through litigation.

Juan (or is it Jaun) has nothing attachable, and driving without insurance is not a risk because it's easier to swim south than north.

This plan will provide coverage.

What they are proposing is another example of legislation without knowledge of the problem. Some members of the driving public cannot or will not pay for coverage unless it is metered through the purchase of fuel.....

[Highwayman]

Originally Posted by lurker

The short answer is to include the price of liability insurance in the price of fuel. The more you drive, the more your exposure, the more you pay.

Lurker, your idea of tacking insurance on to the price of fuel makes a lot of sense. Something that comes to mind is farm gas. I remember farmers used to buy fuel for farming without the “road tax” for use on the farm. Sometimes it found its way into the road vehicles (imagine that). Are we going to create a loophole that could be used to get around paying the insurance?

The other thing is folks are complaining about high gas prices as it is. How many of those folks think about the fact that 20% * of the current price at the pump is tax? (Probably closer to over 50% with all the imbedded, hidden taxes) I’m having trouble with a mental picture of smiling folks happily shelling out big bucks at the pump content in the knowledge that they are getting a better deal on the insurance end. And yeah, low mileage drivers stand to save a lot with your plan.

*source http://www.kansasgasprices.com/tax_info.aspx

[Made in the USA]

There is too much damn tax on fuel now. Like Highway says, tax makes up a major portion. We don't need no more "stinking taxes"!!!!

[K C Muffin]

I don't think it's so much the fact that we would be screwing agencies out of their 'right' to sell the insurance.....auto insurance is the pits. And I mean pits for an agency to handle. Depending on the clientele of your agency, you might have to make phone calls to almost all your auto clients every month to remind them to pay their premium or face cancellation. They only make around 10% to 15% commission and unless the premium is pretty high (SW Kansas really isn't, no matter what you think), agents don't make much of anything off auto insurance. I agree with the last couple of posts. If we ever went to the pay-at-the-pump system, I believe farmers will not be exempt from that particular tax just by having the fuel bulk-delivered. They will need the coverage too. All in all, I see the positives of the system and the ease of administration, I just don't see a wide popularity - especially in the heartland.

[Made in the USA]

Dang gas price is up today in DC to 2.39 /gal. Makes me madder than hell whn I go to Wichita and pay 1.92, and just about anywhere else and pay less than in Dodge. And don't give me this crap about gas shortage, transportation charge, etc. I have worked in refineries and around the fossil fuel industry, and we are just plain getting "screwed"!!

While I am on this "soapbox"! I have used ethanol fuels for the past several years (and I do burn alot of fuel in my job) , and there is no reason for it to go up higher than non-ethanol fuels. I have felt that by using ethanol that I help our farmers, and we are less reliant on foreign oil. But now that ethanol fuel is catching on a little, they have jacked the price of it up by over 20 cents to where it is higher than non-ethanol. Hell, maybe we ought to all go back to horses, then they would jack the price of hay and oats up, then maybe I could make a living!!!

By the way, I hear that when they get that new Windfarm in at Spearville, that they are going to start charging us for "Wind" too!!! Now that will definitely make me exodus from SW Kansas!!!