County supervisors take aim at insurance provisions in governor’s budget plan

Claim auto premiums will soar under Doyle’s proposals

Hank Murphy

The Florence County Board of Supervisors has joined a growing chorus of critics opposed to insurance provisions that, if enacted, would drive up automobile insurance rates in Wisconsin by at least 33 percent and force many cash-strapped consumers to drop coverage altogether, according to an insurance industry advocacy group.

Wisconsin, a state with some of the lowest auto premiums in the nation, would move to having among the highest rates in the United States under Gov. Jim Doyle’s proposals, county Chairwoman Jeanette Bomberg said Monday night.

The proposed changes to auto insurance is contained in Doyle’s budget bill. Doyle and trial lawyers backing provisions to raise minimum standards for coverage say a change is necessary because medical costs associated with accidents have soared since the current law went on the books 28 years ago.

Doyle’s budget contains a provision – one of several involving auto insurance – that would require motorists who buy insurance to obtain at least $100,000 of coverage for injuries to one person, and buy $300,000 of insurance to cover medical payments for accidents in which two or more people have been injured. Currently, the minimum is $25,000 per injured person and $50,000 per multiple-injury accident. The governor’s provisions also would boost the property damage coverage minimum to $25,000 from $10,000. Additionally, it would increase the minimum non-health insurance medical coverage for a driver or people injured in his car, and make underinsured motorist coverage mandatory.

Wisconsin families would be forced to shell out 33 percent to 43 percent more money annually for auto insurance, according to the Wisconsin Insurance Alliance . The added burden likely would prompt some people to forgo insurance altogether, according to the alliance.

Another provision in the bill would permit a plaintiff to collect damages from a defendant even if the defendant was only 1 percent at fault in an accident. If, for instance, a defendant was 1 percent at fault and two other defendants each were 25 percent at fault, the plaintiff could collect from each even if the plaintiff was 49 percent at fault.

Doyle spokeswoman Carla Vigue told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that the proposed changes would bring coverage more in line with the increased costs of treatment for people injured in accidents, and would provide greater certainty to those with insurance. The provisions were included in the budget because they affect the state's Medicaid health care program. Many people who are injured in car accidents can't pay for the cost of treating their injuries and end up in Medicaid, pushing the costs on to taxpayers, she told the newspaper.

A spokesman for the Wisconsin Association for Justice, which represents trial attorneys, said the current coverage minimums are outdated. Keith Clifford told the Journal-Sentinel that the state's minimums for negligent drivers don't take into account modern medical expenses or things like emergency helicopter flights. Medical care that cost $25,000 in 1982 costs $104,000 today, he told the paper.

State Rep. Jeff Mursau, R-Crivitz, called Doyle’s auto insurance provisions “terrible for consumers in Wisconsin.”

The proposed changes, he said, would shift money from the pockets of Wisconsinites during difficult economic times to the pockets of trial attorneys. “This is not good legislation, that’s for sure,” he said.

State Sen. Jim Holperin, D-Eagle River, said he favors stripping the insurance provisions from the budget bill. “The reason provisions like this get inserted into the budget is because they’re hard to take out, and people don’t get to vote on them separately,” he explained.

Nevertheless, provisions do get removed from spending bills, and Holperin said he is confident these insurance proposals will be taken out. They clearly are not fiscal issues and should be introduced separately, he said. The measures should go before legislative insurance committees and be subject to public hearings and amendments. Then, they should stand or fall on their own merits instead of being part of a huge budget package, he said.

The Florence County Board on April 21 passed a resolution opposing Doyle’s insurance proposals. On Monday night, Bomberg urged the Florence County school board to take a similar stance, saying Doyle’s proposals would cause the district’s auto insurance rates to skyrocket.

“Right now the economy is in dire straits. The last thing a struggling family needs is a 40 percent increase on their insurance,” Bomberg said. “You’re going to force a family that’s struggling to keep minimum insurance to have no insurance at all.”