Insurance companies oppose expanding required auto coverage

Auto insurance companies might be expected to get behind legislation that would boost the minimum amount of coverage that drivers must buy to keep their vehicles on the road.

On its face, the proposal now being debated in the Senate would require people to spend more on insurance. This could help the state's auto insurers – if they believed drivers would actually pay for more coverage.

But many of the state's largest policy writers oppose the bill moving toward final passage.

Insurance lobbyists have joined advocates for the poor in opposing raising minimum coverage by 50 percent -- from the current $20,000 per individual and $40,000 per crash, to $30,000 and $60,000. That translates into rate increases of between 5 and 15 percent, and the rate hikes would cause large numbers of people with minimum coverage to carry no insurance at all, they say.