View this article online: https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/east/2002/09/26/23349.htm
The Coalition for Auto Insurance Competition (CAIC), an organization advocating reforms of New Jersey auto insurance laws, has begun launching television and newspaper ads in an effort to enlist consumer support for its statewide campaign.
The coalition is urging passage of the Auto Insurance Competition and Choice Act (A-2625), sponsored by Assemblyman Lou Greenwald (D). The coalition contends that the legislation would spur more competition among individual auto insurers and a greater choice of auto insurers doing business in New Jersey.
“Drivers deserve a system that promotes competition, encourages companies to sell auto insurance in New Jersey, and creates a stable market that offers more choices for consumers,” said John Friedman, chairman of the Coalition for Auto Insurance Competition.
Friedman stated, “Four out of the six largest insurers in America already do not do business in New Jersey and when State Farm, the state’s largest auto insurer, completes its withdrawal currently in process, that number will increase to five out of six.”
Great American Spirit Insurance Company and Twin City Fire Insurance Company recently surrendered their New Jersey auto insurance business to Palisades Insurance Company Group, paying the company millions of dollars to take business off their hands.
The latest figures show New Jersey has 47 percent fewer companies selling auto insurance than Illinois and more than a third fewer than neighboring New York and Pennsylvania. More than 20 auto insurance companies have left New Jersey in the past ten years.