Gov. Hochul Announces Agreement on Auto Insurance Reforms; Legislature Suggests Otherwise
Gov. Kathy Hochul held a news conference Thursday morning announcing an agreement with legislative leaders on the State Budget, including major auto insurance reforms. Absent from the news conference, however, were legislative leaders. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie told reporters that “there’s no deal” but also noted that they are “close” to an agreement.
Nevertheless, the reforms announced by the governor largely track what is expected. While the exact language has not been released, the Governor outlined what she said are the agreed upon reforms. Per an Executive Chamber news release, the budget will include provisions to:
- “Cap payouts for drivers engaging in criminal behavior at the time of the incident, including uninsured motorists, drunk drivers, and drivers in the act of committing a felony.
- Better define what actually constitutes a ‘serious injury’ so that damages for pain and suffering or emotional distress are reserved for those able to objectively demonstrate that they have suffered a serious injury.
- Ensure that if a driver is found to be mostly at fault for causing an accident, they cannot claim outsized payments for damages.
- Prevent insurance companies from exorbitantly raising rates by setting a legal threshold that prevents excess profits and returns savings to consumers.
- Create new regulatory safeguards to prevent insurance companies from raising rates without seeking express approval from the Department of Financial Services.
- Protect consumers by prohibiting insurance companies from setting rates based on extraneous, personal factors like homeownership status, occupation, education level or zip code.
- These measures come in addition to the Governor’s whole-of-government approach to combatting fraud by tasking DFS, DMV, DCJS and NYSP with a more proactive and coordinated approach to enforcement.”
Big I New York will continue to monitor these developments and engage with lawmakers as needed to ensure that meaningful auto insurance fraud and lawsuit abuse reforms are included in the final legislation.
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