An Innovative Idea to end Un-Insured Motorists

Many years back when I was a Connecticut Deputy Sheriff working in the courthouse I was confronted by several cases involving accidents. The affected parties were litigating to collect on auto damages due to accidents by "uninsured" motorists. While out driving today I started to think about revisiting this issue so I came home and started looking into exactly how big of a problem driving an uninsured car in CT really is. I thought it could not be that bad, especially since CT had a law requiring uninsured motorists to be covered by the guy with a valid policy. What are the odds of two vehicles in an accident both not having Insurance? Seems to me that things were pretty tight. Well these are some current statistics, lets see how big of a deal these Auto insurance issues really are.

The numbers average about 1 in 5 Cars have no insurance in CT. These numbers, of course are affected by income and education. The more Income and Education you have the more likely your neighbors are insured. This is the standard that was used by the CT legislature in CT's assessments to justify the drafting of laws to get people covered. To my shock and dismay this is the law.

"Any person who operates or permits the operation of his uninsured vehicle is guilty of a class C misdemeanor and subject to a fine up to $ 500, up to three months imprisonment, or both (CGS § 38a-371(d)). Upon conviction, an uninsured motorist is subject to a fine from $ 100 to $ 1,000 and a suspended registration and driver’s license for one month for a first conviction and six months for subsequent convictions (CGS § 14-213b). An uninsured motorist whose registration has been suspended may also have his license plates confiscated and vehicle impounded (CGS § 14-12h). "

This law seemed incredibly harsh, especially on the poor who in their CT survey said they often had difficulty keeping up with their bills. This problem I expect will become worse in CT as Education, Immigration, and the changing educational requirements for high skilled jobs continue to change. By my calculations Ct will have 1 in 4 uninsured motorists if the education principle holds true by 2012-2013. Here are some concerns that cause me to arrive to this conclusion. See the rough figures in the graph below.



To explain this graph, the CT OLR Research report from 2000 (http://www.cga.ct.gov/2000/rpt/olr/htm/2000-r-0182.htm) has drawn a conclusive result that Income and Education affect how many uninsured drivers exist on the road. Keep this statistic as a frame of reference.

Next we will look at the rate of change and addition of immigrants to the state of CT. This is important because the influx of immigrants between now and the year 2013 is expected to increase from 12% to 17% or another 5% jump. The incomes that these immigrants earn is usually far less for the largest group, the non-skilled labor group and non-English speaking group. This group is the majority of immigrants to arrive in CT, of which is receiving Immigrants at a far higher rate.

These matters are to be further exaggerated by the "High" level of inflation, or an "Inflation Tax" on the poor, now expected due to the Federal Reserve dramatically increasing the U.S. Money supply to bail out the Mortgage Industry. What we have here is a situation where I believe policy, not more draconian laws must be implemented as the solution. As it stands today, the Insurance industry in CT has a 2 for 1 profit margin on your premiums. That means that every $100 they pay out in claims and expenses they take in $200. The costs to these insurance companies are high because they need to advertise, pay mailing and marketing costs, agent fees and broker commissions across the state. While I am an advocate of jobs, I am also an advocate of solving the "Un-Insured" motorist problem. The idea I am about to propose will solve this problem by fairly adjusting premiums to every driver based on a real risk assessment.

The Solution is to to form an alliance between the Energy companies and the Insurance companies. Big corporations are better suited to do business with each other as they have better tools and negotiating skills than us lay people standing in line at Allstate. Imagine never receiving an auto insurance bill ever again, not worrying about paying insurance on that old car in the garage and furthermore not looking in the rearview mirror in anxiety that maybe you were cancelled last week by AIG. Imagine your legislator, thinking about something other than a stricter sentence for you the un-insured motorist. This is all possible if insurance companies compete with oil and gasoline companies for the fair market cost of insurance that will be added to your price per gallon. The idea is simple "No-Gas" "No-Insurance." The result is an end to the "Un-Insured motorist" nightmare coming down the Pike. It is also very fair, because people who drive less are less exposed to an accident and hence not as "High" of a risk than someone who drives intensely more; It also discourages excess wasteful driving.

The one concern that was brought to my attention, is "How does it adjust for the young inexperienced driver, the drunk driver with suspensions, and the persons with excessive accidents?" The answer is that I support strong laws to encourage these high risk drivers to "Ride the Bus" as it stands public transportation is suffering because laws getting these people off the road are not stern enough. But ultimately I would hope that the significant reduction in costs to this simplified way of doing business would adjust the PL graph to a comfortable spot. I believe it can be worked out.

These ideas can only be achieved by you believing they are fair, and electing people to office who are innovators in their thinking. That is why I am running for office. Help me get "Old School" politicians out of office. Support me Support my Ideas. Join My campaign to make CT a better place to live.