- Insurance
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NMA Position on Insurance
There are several fundamental flaws reflected in current laws, regulations, and policies that embrace automobile insurance. The most pervasive, and erroneous, belief is that making automobile insurance mandatory significantly increases coverage and protects the victims of auto accidents. It does neither of these things. It does distort the market for auto insurance and increases the cost of coverage for all policy holders.
The NMA supports the repeal of the McCarren-Ferguson Act, a 1920's federal law that exempts insurance companies from anti-trust regulations and allows them to collude on pricing, coverage and underwriting practices.
All automobile insurance policies should include uninsured and underinsured coverage in the same amount as the policies' liability coverage.
Automobile insurance coverage should be based on a per-mile standard, not the present per-year standard. Mileage is a true reflection of risk exposure, while time has no consistent correlation with risk. Other traditional risk factors can be used to adjust the mileage rate.
Underwriting decisions should be based, where possible, on cause-and-effect relationships, not accidental correlations.
Insurance premiums should not be increased for random traffic violations.
Any policy holder who prevails in a lawsuit against his or her insurance company for the payment of a claim should be entitled to triple damages and legal expenses.
Insurance companies should not be permitted to refuse payment of claims because the policy holder violated a traffic law that allegedly caused the loss.