Scott Walker Lowering Car Insurance Standards In Wisconsin

The state of Wisconsin has been in turmoil over labor issues and collective bargaining rights regarding unions. Now the state’s governor, Scott Walker is going to be changing the state’s auto insurance laws by reducing the amount of liability coverage required for drivers.
Reducing these minimum liability coverage standards could end up severely harming drivers in the end. When an auto accident takes place, the repairs and medical treatments required afterwards can be quite expensive. As we all know, health care costs are skyrocketing and repairing vehicles is not cheap. At a time when many people are unemployed and their wages are not increasing, it seems hardly the time to tell people to be less insured in the event of an auto accident.
Some have stated that Wisconsin residents would benefit a lot financially due to this action because their auto insurance premiums would decrease. However, it would also make it so that some auto insurers do not want to offer coverage anymore because of lower premiums having to be in place.
In 2009, the former governor of Wisconsin, Jim Doyle took steps to increase the amount of auto insurance coverage that drivers would have to have on their vehicles by law. Now, Governor Walker has taken steps to undo these laws because he is a Republican and therefore wants to undo what the Democrat governor had done before him.
With Doyle’s plan in place, auto insurance premiums in the state have declined by about nine percent. A driver who spends $1200 a year on auto insurance coverage would save about $110. This is a huge cost savings for people so it might not be a good idea to reduce the minimum standards now when the current system is being so effective.
Drivers who only want liability insurance coverage do so because of the annual cost of this type of coverage. In Wisconsin, people can expect to pay about $582 for six months of coverage if they only want to meet the minimum standards. If the law is passed, then they will see their insurance premiums drop even more in the future.
Gov. Walker’s new law would take effect on Nov. 1, 2011. It would require only $25000 in coverage for medical related and vehicle repair expenses for the driver involved in the auto accident. The coverage increases to $50000 if there are multiple victims involved in the car accident.
This does not seem to be sufficient enough for today’s standard costs associated with a car accident. Medical treatments for injury often cost in the tens of thousands of dollars in car accidents where victims are critically injured. This would leave drivers involved in these car accidents in dire straits financially. This is quite unfair for all parties involved.
The economy is bad right now and people desperately want to save money but politicians need to really weigh the risks and benefits of such a law before ever signing it and having it take effect in the first place. Auto insurance coverage is pretty affordable right now in the state. It ranked tenth in affordability in 2011 which was an improvement from fourteenth in 2010.
People never think that they will need auto insurance coverage this is why they hate mandatory insurance coverage laws. However, auto accidents happen on a daily basis and not having enough coverage and being at fault for the accident can bankrupt you and make you wish that you had gotten more coverage than you did before. Hopefully Governor Walker’s decision to create the law will not hurt consumers when they become involved in car accidents in the future.
Source: Wausau Daily Herald