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ASSIGNED RISK RATES
INCREASED 19%
By Chuck Wells
The New York Auto Insurance
Plan (Assigned Risk) was set up after car insurance was made
mandatory so everyone could get car insurance no matter what
their driving record. It was supposed to be for the really bad
drivers or the kids just getting their licenses.
As with most liberal ideas, this program ran amuck. The Assigned
Risk policies are subsidized (part of the premium you good
drivers pay goes to reduce premiums for the high risk drivers
because you should feel sorry for them. They would be eating dog
food if you did not help them out), the Assigned Risk also
offers “Careful Driver Discounts” of up to 30%, and even good
drivers are stuck in the Assigned Risk.
Anyway, the Assigned Risk rates went up 19% in August. They
should have gone up about 75% to off-set costs of these
high-claim policies but the politicians would rather you good
drivers subsidize them some more.
In working on new rates, I found that the young male driver
rates did not increase much but the young females and those with
tickets and accidents did increase by about 19%. Young females
are having many more accidents than in the past (hurried
lifestyles and more complicated make-up applications) and the
costs of repairing cars and people has increased dramatically.
For the rest of you not in the Assigned Risk, expect large rate
increases for the next couple of years. Insurance companies are
paying out $112 in claims for every $100 they collect in
premiums. As you can see, this is not workable and that means
premiums will have to increase to off-set costs. The only way to
decrease or stabilize car insurance premiums is to attack the
costs: lawsuits, medical expenses, car repair bills.
DO YOU REALLY WANT TO SWIM?
Some Yahoo in Tonawanda, NY got into an industrial site and
stole a dismantled 4-foot-deep above-ground swimming pool. Yahoo
probably wanted it for his backyard and decided it was better to
steal a pool rather than pay for it. Only one problem. The
industrial site said they had been using the pool to store
radioactive substances and it might not be a good idea to swim
in it.
BUT IT’S NOT MY FAULT
Gilbert Walker of Panama City, Florida said it wasn’t his fault
that he broke into his neighbor’s house and chased her around
with a knife as he drank too much jasmine tea.
And Amanda Hagan said that a hospital in Norristown, Pa. was
negligent as they allowed a visitor into her room as she was
being treated for an overdose of heroin and the visitor brought
her more heroin to shoot up in her hospital bed.
A woman is suing McDonalds in New York City (no, not from coffee
burns to the crotch this time) because she was “thrown” against
the wall in the ladies room as the toilet she was attempting to
sit on was “unsteady.”
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