Stats Show Mass. Auto Insurance Prices Have Been Decreasing

The declines in average car insurance costs have been attributed largely to sweeping changes to the way the state's market is regulated.

2011-01-11

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, CA, January 11, 2011 (Press-News.org) New statistics released by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) and reported by the Insurance Information Institute show that the average cost of car coverage for Massachusetts residents dropped significantly between 2004 and 2008.

The Bay State coverage market saw the largest year-to-year decrease between 2007 and 2008, a drop that has been attributed to the transition from a "fix-and-establish" regulatory system to one of "managed competition." According to the NAIC, the average cost of coverage dropped 8 percent during 2008, the year that managed competition was introduced.

Under fix-and-establish, regulators were the ones setting rates. But with the introduction of managed competition, insurers were granted much more freedom in assessing risks and calculating premiums for consumers. Managed competition's arrival brought with it the introduction of some of the country's top auto insurance companies to the state's market and, according to state regulators, a savings of $270 million on premiums during the first year.

Source: http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=ocapressrelease&L=1&L0=Home&sid=Eoca&b=pr ... &csid=Eoca

But rates were falling even before the switch to managed competition, with the two preceding years each showing 6-percent year-to-year decreases.

Commissioner Joseph Murphy told Online Auto Insurance News that he attributes these pre-managed-competition decreases to national trends, mild winters that resulted in fewer claims, and effective fraud-prevention initiatives. Murphy said fraud-prevention programs fueled by government grants between 2003 and 2006 amounted to tens of millions of dollars in savings.

According to NAIC data, the state's average expenditure was $1,113 in 2004 and was $903 in 2008, the latest year for which they have released statistics.

To learn more about getting covered by one of the best rated insurers in Massachusetts or in any state, consumers can go to http://www.onlineautoinsurance.com/companies/ratings/ where visitors will find informative resource pages and a free-to-use quote-comparison generator that can be used to quickly evaluate rate estimates from a variety of carriers.

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