{"id":5160,"date":"2019-09-05T17:31:14","date_gmt":"2019-09-05T17:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/senatedems.com\/brinks\/?p=5160"},"modified":"2019-09-05T17:31:14","modified_gmt":"2019-09-05T17:31:14","slug":"legislators-join-forces-to-hold-auto-insurance-companies-accountable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.senatedems.com\/brinks\/2019\/09\/05\/legislators-join-forces-to-hold-auto-insurance-companies-accountable\/","title":{"rendered":"Legislators Join Forces to Hold Auto Insurance Companies Accountable"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>LANSING \u2014 Sen.&nbsp;<strong>Winnie Brinks&nbsp;<\/strong>(D-Grand Rapids), Sen.&nbsp;<strong>Betty Jean Alexander&nbsp;<\/strong>(D-Detroit) and Sen.&nbsp;<strong>Jeremy Moss&nbsp;<\/strong>(D-Southfield)today&nbsp;introduced legislation to protect consumers from predatory auto insurance rate-setting loopholes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Senate Bill&nbsp;500,&nbsp;sponsored by Sen. Brinks, would create a one-stop online information hub where residents could compare standard auto and home insurance premiums.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cJust as we are accountable to the people we serve, residents deserve an auto insurance system that gives them the ability to understand what they are paying for, get the coverage they need when they need it and have the ability to choose an option that works for them,\u201d Sen. Brinks said. \u201cTogether, this legislation will give Michiganders insurance options and information to&nbsp;help them get the right coverage at the best price.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Senate Bill&nbsp;499, introduced by Sen. Alexander, would&nbsp;implement a lasting&nbsp;ban on redlining&nbsp;in Michigan.&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/legislature.mi.gov\/doc.aspx?2019-SB-0001\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Public Act 21 of 2019<\/a>&nbsp;prohibits the use of ZIP codes in rate-setting, but the new law still allows insurance companies to consider&nbsp;\u2018territories\u2019&nbsp;\u2014 a&nbsp;gimmick&nbsp;that could continue to allow unfair rates based on a person\u2019s address.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cPeople in Detroit&nbsp;and surrounding areas&nbsp;are already paying far too much for auto insurance because these companies are permitted to discriminate based on non-driving related factors,\u201d Sen. Alexander said. \u201cIt\u2019s unfair and unreasonable for companies to target&nbsp;communities of color&nbsp;and charge them&nbsp;inflated&nbsp;premiums simply because of where a person chooses to live.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Senate Bill&nbsp;498,&nbsp;sponsored by Sen. Moss, would ban&nbsp;the practice of&nbsp;price optimization \u2014 a method by which auto insurance companies set&nbsp;rates or award discounts&nbsp;based on&nbsp;what they believe the consumer will tolerate paying. The practice&nbsp;often penalizes loyal customers who are unlikely to shop around and leave their current policy and reward those they believe will leave their plan.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cPrice optimization is a billing scam that&nbsp;uses non-driving factors to set rates&nbsp;\u2014&nbsp;and actually keeps loyal policyholders trapped with high insurance costs.&nbsp;Michigan must join the roughly 20 other states that outlaw this shady&nbsp;business&nbsp;practice,\u201d Sen. Moss<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>said. \u201cThese bills will&nbsp;tackle&nbsp;some the shortcomings&nbsp;of the insurance reform signed&nbsp;into law&nbsp;earlier this year that neglected to hold insurance companies accountable. Michigan consumers deserve more transparency about how their rates are set.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Senate Bill 498, sponsored by Sen. Moss, would ban the practice of price optimization \u2014 a method by which auto insurance companies set rates or award discounts based on what they believe the consumer will tolerate paying. The practice often penalizes loyal customers who are unlikely to shop around and leave their current policy and reward those they believe will leave their plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cPrice optimization is a billing scam that uses non-driving factors to set rates \u2014 and actually keeps loyal policyholders trapped with high insurance costs. Michigan must join the roughly 20 other states that outlaw this shady business practice,\u201d Sen. Moss said. \u201cThese bills will tackle some the shortcomings of the insurance reform signed into law earlier this year that neglected to hold insurance companies accountable. Michigan consumers deserve more transparency about how their rates are set.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Senate Bill 499, introduced by Sen. Alexander, would implement a lasting ban on redlining in Michigan.&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/legislature.mi.gov\/doc.aspx?2019-SB-0001\">Public Act 21 of 2019<\/a>&nbsp;prohibits the use of ZIP codes in rate-setting, but the new law still allows insurance companies to consider \u2018territories\u2019 \u2014 a gimmick that could continue to allow unfair rates based on a person\u2019s address.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cPeople in Detroit and surrounding areas are already paying far too much for auto insurance because these companies are permitted to discriminate based on non-driving related factors,\u201d Sen. Alexander said. \u201cIt\u2019s unfair and unreasonable for companies to target communities of color and charge them inflated premiums simply because of where a person chooses to live.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Senate Bill 500, sponsored by Sen. Brinks, would create a one-stop online information hub where residents could compare standard auto and home insurance premiums.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cJust as we are accountable to the people we serve, residents deserve an auto insurance system that gives them the ability to understand what they are paying for, get the coverage they need when they need it, and have the ability to choose an option that works for them,\u201d Sen. Brinks said. \u201cTogether, this legislation will give Michiganders insurance options and information to help them get the right coverage at the best price.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>###<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LANSING \u2014 Sen.&nbsp;Winnie Brinks&nbsp;(D-Grand Rapids), Sen.&nbsp;Betty Jean Alexander&nbsp;(D-Detroit) and Sen.&nbsp;Jeremy Moss&nbsp;(D-Southfield)today&nbsp;introduced legislation to protect consumers from predatory auto insurance rate-setting loopholes.&nbsp; Senate Bill&nbsp;500,&nbsp;sponsored by Sen. Brinks, would create a one-stop [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pr"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.4 (Yoast SEO v26.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Legislators Join Forces to Hold Auto Insurance Companies Accountable - Senator Winnie Brinks<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dev.senatedems.com\/brinks\/2019\/09\/05\/legislators-join-forces-to-hold-auto-insurance-companies-accountable\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Legislators Join Forces to Hold Auto Insurance Companies Accountable\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"LANSING \u2014 Sen.&nbsp;Winnie Brinks&nbsp;(D-Grand Rapids), Sen.&nbsp;Betty Jean Alexander&nbsp;(D-Detroit) and Sen.&nbsp;Jeremy Moss&nbsp;(D-Southfield)today&nbsp;introduced legislation to protect consumers from predatory auto insurance rate-setting loopholes.&nbsp; Senate Bill&nbsp;500,&nbsp;sponsored by Sen. 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