North Carolina Auto Insurance Overhaul Proposal Defeated

An effort to overhaul North Carolina’s automobile insurance system has been thwarted in a House committee after Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin and other speakers warned passing the bill would raise premium rates for everyone.

The House Insurance Committee refused Tuesday to recommend legislation by defeating a motion to move the bill to the chamber floor.

The measure would have allowed individual insurance firms to lower or raise their own overall premiums by 7 percent. Currently, a group representing all auto insurers files one combined annual premium proposal. It also would have gradually ended an extra charge all drivers must pay to make up for some motorists considered too risky to pay conventional rates.

The bill has pitted the some of the nation’s largest insurance companies against each other.