A bill that would have required insurance companies to offer a mileage-based car insurance option—the more you drive, the more you pay—was effectively gutted by the senate transportation committee today; the committee passed out the radically altered bill this afternoon.
In its original form, the bill would have required insurance companies to offer a pay-as-you-drive option (with mileage tracked by a computer chip in the car) or provide a mandatory discount to low-mileage drivers. The bill that passed committee today, now called “an act relating to exempting certain usage or mileage-based insurance information from public inspection,” removes all the mandates in the original bill and replaces them with a new provision exempting insurance companies who provide mileage-based insurance from disclosing information about the technology they use to track miles.
At a hearing Tuesday, insurance companies argued that the proposed bill would represent unfair interference in the insurance market and could unfairly give companies access to their competitors’ proprietary technology.
Carrie Dolwick, lobbyist for the Transportation Choices Coalition, says supporters have a week to restore the language in the original bill in the senate Ways and Means Committee, where the bill is currently awaiting a hearing.
