Car Insurance

The rates Baltimore-area drivers pay for the same six-month car insurance policy vary by as much as $764, the second-highest figure in the nation, according to a survey commissioned by one of the state's largest car insurance providers.And even though some experts said those numbers are overstated, the survey points out the need to do comparison shopping when looking for auto insurance, said Progressive Auto Insurance, which released the findings yesterday.Nationally, six-month rates varied an average of $481.

A. ROBERT Kaufman stood in front of the Motor Vehicle Administration building at Mondawmin Mall, his cap nattily ensconced atop his head, looking quite dapper and candidate-like in his sports coat and tie.He perched next to his van, his hands shoved into his pockets, while television cameramen from channels 2 and 11 set up to hear him announce his candidacy for mayor of Baltimore. Kaufman's van is legendary, covered with bumper stickers that say as much about the owner's left-wing, Trotskyite politics as Kaufman himself does.

Views conflict on Peruvian mission workGinger Thompson and The Sun should be ashamed for the biased cheerleading in the July 20 and 21 two-part article about missionary work in the Peruvian rain forest.Missionaries have destroyed a unique culture they encountered simply because they believe that their culture is superior.They have infected the indigenous peoples with deadly diseases and have bribed, tricked and deceived those human beings, while claiming to be morally and religiously advanced.

WANT TO LOWER your car-insurance premiums? It could happen -- if legislators in Annapolis stop catering to powerful special interests. More than 60 percent of your premium covers liability. Of that amount, 19 percent could be saved if excessive litigation and fraudulent claims were eliminated.Sadly, state legislators yawned at the problem when a gubernatorial commission sought reforms this year. Too many of them want to please trial lawyers and doctors who vigorously fight for the status quo. These special interests know that lower insurance premiums would come out of their pockets.

THE GOVERNOR'S auto-insurance bill promised big changes and lower premiums for Maryland drivers. In some cases, the reductions would be quite large, as fraud and double-dipping are eliminated. But that was before vested interests, who profit from inflated car-insurance premiums, had their say before the General Assembly.By the time they were finished, the bill had been picked clean. What remained was a shell of the original measure. It means that car drivers will continue to pay far more in insurance than they should.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening is promising Maryland drivers a discount worthy of an automobile salesman -- a 10 to 20 percent savings in how much they pay for mandatory car insurance.That is the goal of controversial legislation he is expected to submit to the General Assembly within 10 days.The insurance proposal would limit how much accident victims, their lawyers and health care providers could receive from an accident claim.But to sell the idea to lawmakers, Mr. Glendening will have to battle powerful special interest groups.

Efforts to reduce high car insurance costs in Baltimore could yield a significant bonus for drivers elsewhere across the state -- a 10 percent to 20 percent savings in their own car insurance premiums.That is the conclusion of a new study analyzing recommendations made earlier this year by a gubernatorial commission on auto insurance reform. The report presented to the panel yesterday concludes that city drivers could save as much as 24.2 percent on their car insurance if the proposed reforms are adopted.

A state commission studying Baltimore automobile insurance costs is expected to recommend changes aimed at lowering city premiums by 20 percent.David M. Funk, chair of the 17-member gubernatorial task force, said he has concluded that reforms could reduce premiums by that amount. The panel will begin discussions next week on ways to meet that goal, he said.A 20 percent reduction in the average city motorist's premium is an ambitious but realistic target, Mr. Funk said. Further, he said, the commission will recommend laws to lessen auto insurance costs for drivers elsewhere in the state.

IT'S TERRIBLE what people who live in Baltimore City have to pay for their car insurance. But that doesn't mean it's all right for people to avoid the higher costs by telling the Department of Motor Vehicles and their insurance company they live outside town. In fact, it is against the law.Anyone found violating that law ought to be prosecuted. That includes state election board chief Gene M. Raynor, 6th District City Councilman Norman A. Handy Sr. and 3rd District council candidate Joan Carter Conway.

Faced with a daunting auto insurance bill, Alyson Jurcak figured she had two options: lie or leave.Ms. Jurcak, then a Curtis Bay resident, couldn't afford to pay the almost $2,000 annual insurance premium on a 1969 Dodge sedan, not on a $3.65-an-hour wage. So for years, she used a phony suburban address and cut her bill in half.Today, Ms. Jurcak lives in Glen Burnie and pays about $750 a year to insure her 1990 Nissan Sentra. Her experience with car insurance was one of the major reasons she fled Baltimore.

Homeowners aren't the only ones hit by predatory lending practices. Consider the plight of the Maryland driver who has the misfortune of having either a poor credit history or a bad driving record. Such unfortunates are paying through the nose for car insurance - thanks to premium finance companies that not only charge high rates but also get their money upfront and virtually risk-free. Here's how it works. Drivers who must insure through MAIF - the Maryland Automobile Insurance Fund, the state's quasi-public insurer of last resort - are required to pay their annual premium in advance.

Buy a house, and your lender will usually require you to get insurance. Rent one, and you're free to choose as long as your landlord has no opinion on the matter. So why bother, if you don't own the place? Because renter's insurance is about your possessions, not the walls around them. It's a lot cheaper than car insurance, if you're smarting over that bill. Premiums generally run between $200 and $250 a year, which works out to a monthly charge of $17 to $21, said Timothy M. Lipinski, a risk portfolio manager at Kirby Insurance Agency Inc., a brokerage headquartered in Baltimore.

An advantage, if there is one, of Maryland's foot-dragging on health care reform is that it can learn from the example of bolder states leading the way on ensuring that their citizens have medical insurance. At the head of the pack is Massachusetts, which has just unveiled an income-based scale of premiums and subsidies for a comprehensive insurance package available to state residents, who will all be required to carry some form of coverage. After observing what is bound to be a bit of a turbulent shakedown cruise, Maryland can copy what works, avoid what doesn't and perhaps follow a swifter path to something near universal coverage.

It's time lawmakers mustered some serious outrage at the ridiculously high finance charges - amounting to hundreds of dollars in some cases - that a typical low-income Maryland driver has to pay for car insurance. How much would it cost taxpayers to correct this egregious situation? Absolutely nothing. And yet for years, legislators have been more inclined to protect the profits of "premium finance companies" than help make car insurance affordable. Fortunately, this may be the year all that changes.

BALTIMORE'S CAR insurance rates are too high. A recent Abell Foundation report concluded that city drivers pay 60 percent more for car insurance than their suburban counterparts. There are many reasons for this, but at least one is easily corrected. Many city drivers get their insurance through the Maryland Automobile Insurance Fund. And thousands of these MAIF drivers are paying finance charges equivalent to 26 percent or more. That's outrageous - and it isn't MAIF's fault. MAIF is a state agency created 32 years ago as an insurer of last resort.

There's the high-pressure sell, followed by a flash of panic - should you spring for the extra insurance when renting a car? Taking everything they offered could mean doubling the rental cost, but declining the option isn't always the smart thing to do. Only 20 percent of renters choose to take the optional coverage, and it's hard to tell if they know what they're doing or are just too cautious. It turns out some people have good reason to take it. "There are a lot of people who rent from us that don't have a car, don't have their own insurance coverage, have a large deductible or have had a lot of accidents," said Christy Conrad of Enterprise Rent-A-Car.

Public `meddling' can save lives and save money I'd like to make a few points in response to the letter "Meddling do-gooders undermine our freedom" (April 25). It has been proven in study after study that seat beats in automobiles and helmets for both bicycles and motorcycles reduce injuries and fatalities from accidents. When people are protected by safety devices, this drives down the cost of health and automobile insurance, because insurers have to pay for fewer accidents and the consequences are less devastating.

The rates Baltimore-area drivers pay for the same six-month car insurance policy vary by as much as $764, the second-highest figure in the nation, according to a survey commissioned by one of the state's largest car insurance providers.And even though some experts said those numbers are overstated, the survey points out the need to do comparison shopping when looking for auto insurance, said Progressive Auto Insurance, which released the findings yesterday.Nationally, six-month rates varied an average of $481.

A. ROBERT Kaufman stood in front of the Motor Vehicle Administration building at Mondawmin Mall, his cap nattily ensconced atop his head, looking quite dapper and candidate-like in his sports coat and tie.He perched next to his van, his hands shoved into his pockets, while television cameramen from channels 2 and 11 set up to hear him announce his candidacy for mayor of Baltimore. Kaufman's van is legendary, covered with bumper stickers that say as much about the owner's left-wing, Trotskyite politics as Kaufman himself does.

Views conflict on Peruvian mission workGinger Thompson and The Sun should be ashamed for the biased cheerleading in the July 20 and 21 two-part article about missionary work in the Peruvian rain forest.Missionaries have destroyed a unique culture they encountered simply because they believe that their culture is superior.They have infected the indigenous peoples with deadly diseases and have bribed, tricked and deceived those human beings, while claiming to be morally and religiously advanced.