Minimun car insurance

Associated Press

ORANGEBURG, S.C. - A bill raising the minimum amount of liability insurance drivers must carry could force providers to increase their lowest premiums seven to 18 percent.

Gov. Mark Sanford has not said whether he will sign the bill, which passed the House last week. The legislation increases the minimum liability coverage that drivers are required to buy to $25,000 for bodily injury for each person injured in a wreck, $50,000 for all people injured and $25,000 to cover property damage.

The existing requirements are $15,000, $30,000 and $10,000, respectively.

Sen. Gerald Malloy, D-Hartsville, who added the amendment on the Senate floor, said the increase was needed to bring the state's minimum rates closer to North Carolina and Georgia.

Sanford's spokesman Joel Sawyer said the increases were rejected in a House subcommittee out of concerns for rates increases and a lack of information the change was needed.

The governor has until midnight Tuesday to sign or veto the bill.

"We're still weighing the merits of the bill, but we have grave concerns about the process," Sawyer said, "when the president of the South Carolina Trial Lawyers Association can personally champion a bill that he and those he represents stand to benefit from financially."

Malloy, the group's president, called the comments "disingenuous and laughable," saying he has done only limited work tied to auto accidents.

Allison Love, executive director of Insurance News Service, said a survey of numerous insurance agencies revealed premiums for minimum liability insurance would jump 7 to 18 percent, or $32 to $100 a year.

Robert Herlong, vice president and regional manager for the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, called the increase "very disruptive to the market."

"We simply don't think it's the government's place to tell someone how much insurance they should have to buy," Herlong said. "Insurance is purchased solely to protect one's assets. I'm afraid a substantial number of them will think, 'I have nothing to lose ... so I'm going to sneak by and go without insurance.'"

About 20 percent of South Carolina Farm Bureau Insurance's policy holders carry minimum liability insurance, said spokeswoman Susan Merrill. Some of those customers could see rates increase by as much as $118 a year, she said.

"The folks who carry minimum liability are those who can least afford an increase in insurance costs," Merrill said.

Merril was concerned that "such a significant change in social policy was made so hastily on the floor of the Senate and House."

"We certainly support a detailed, thorough review of this state's minimum liability requirements. We just think a little more time should have been spent on the subject," she said.

But Patricia Brown, owner of Crossroads Insurance Agency in Orangeburg, said raising the limits is a good idea, saying her company already requires customers to purchase at least $25,000 in property liability insurance.

Customers "want the bare minimum until there's an accident, and then they want to know why we didn't sell them more," she said. "If the state minimum requirements are higher, then they don't have any choice."