February 3, 2004

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BROMWELL BILL WILL END PREMIUM HIKES FOR DRIVERS NOT AT FAULT

Delegate Eric Bromwell (D. Baltimore County 8^th) urged a House committee to approve his proposal – HB 132 – to prohibit auto insurers from raising premiums on drivers who are not at fault for accidents. He characterized his bill as “a pretty straightforward and common sense proposal.”

Bromwell told members of the House Economic Matters Committee that “if you are stopped at a red-light, and someone plows into your stopped vehicle, that may be grounds for the insurer to raise your auto insurance premium.”

He said, “I have to give it to the insurance industry. For sheer creativity at fleecing policyholders, they have no peer.” He predicted that, “insurance industry defenders will cite all kinds of propriety data to prove their case. However, at best, their case is weak, and at worst, it is ludicrous.”

Delegate Bromwell said, “penalizing auto insurance policyholders with premium hikes for an accident for which they are clearly not at fault represents the insurance industry’s quantum leap into the twilight zone for the sole purpose of hiking premiums. The practice makes no sense and should be abolished.”

00000000000