A Democratic state lawmaker has entered the ongoing debate over proposed changes to Michigan’s no-fault auto insurance system, claiming that removing the legal requirement that insurers pay up to a lifetime of health care costs for serious accident victims would enrich coverage providers while overburdening the state’s taxpayers.

“No-fault insurance ensures that citizens get the care they need without wasting time and money fighting with the courts and lawyers,” state Rep. Jeff Irwin (D-Ann Arbor) said in a news release. “The system is working well for consumers, but the insurance companies would love to shift their liabilities to the taxpayers.”

Irwin is among the latest to weigh in on the issue of what, if any, changes must be made to Michigan’s no-fault system, the only one nationwide that requires insurers to cover up to a lifetime of medical and rehabilitative costs for victims of automobile crashes.

continue

Popular searches:

Federal safety officials are investigating a possible defect in certain Mini Cooper “S” cars that has led to increasing reports of vehicles catching fire—sometimes when they were not even running.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) launched a preliminary investigation on Oct. 11, after the agency’s Office of Defects Investigations (ODI) received a dozen complaints of fires that started in the engine compartments of 2007 and 2008 “S” models of the Mini Cooper, Cooper Clubman and Cooper Convertible.

Five of those fires reportedly caused vehicles to be totally destroyed, according to a statement from NHTSA, and eight complainants claimed that fires had broken out while their cars were parked, with the ignition off.

continue

Popular searches:

With the use of Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites increasing among all age groups, a new report predicts it will soon be standard practice for insurance companies to use what people post about themselves online to help gauge their risk as clients.

The authors of the report, which was released last week by Boston-based research and advisory firm Celent, say that over the next three years, insurers will begin using information gathered routinely from social media to determine risk in much the same way that auto insurers in some states use policyholders’ credit histories.

“The information that is posted by individuals on multiple sites reflects their preferences, lifestyles and habits,” Mike Fitzgerald, a senior analyst with Celent’s insurance group and co-author of the report, said in a statement. “Postings from companies include descriptions of product offerings, services, and operations. In both cases, this social data can be used to build a real-time risk profile.”

Insurers Already Using Social Media in Claims Investigations

According to Celent, insurance professionals report that they already refer to social networks during the early stages of investigations of questionable claims.

“The rise of social networks has led to people collecting incriminating evidence about themselves and offering it to insurers,” the authors of the report write.

One example of this is when an individual claimed “a debilitating, work-related back injury.” But when the investigator checked out the claimant’s social media profile, there were photos of the individual performing activities like breakdancing.

continue

Popular searches:

Parents have more top-rated booster seats to choose from than ever before, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) announced Thursday in releasing its annual evaluation of the child safety devices.

A record 31 seats are designated “best bets” this year—more than three times the number that earned the highest marks when the safety research organization, which is funded by auto insurance companies, began rating boosters in 2008.

The best bet designation “means any of these top-rated boosters should work well in the family SUV or the babysitter’s sedan,” Ann McCartt, IIHS senior vice president for research, said in a news release. “Still, boosters that don’t consistently provide good belt fit outnumber the ones that do, so consumers need to keep paying attention to this issue.”

continue

Catastrophes in the first six months of 2011 caused profits to plummet for private U.S. property/casualty insurers, with net income after taxes falling to $4.8 billion from nearly four times that amount during the first half of 2010, according to insurance industry experts.

Overall profitability for providers of home, auto and business insurance dropped from 6.4 percent to 1.7 percent, as measured by the annualized rate of return on average policyholders’ surplus, according to information released this week by ISO and the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI).

That was the lowest for the first half of any year since ISO began quarterly records in 1986 and 7.7 points below the 9.4 average first-half rate of return for the quarter-century ending last year.

continue

Volkswagen is recalling as many as 168,275 Golf, Jetta and Audi vehicles with diesel engines because of fuel system defect that could lead to fires, federal safety officials say.

The recall, which is expected to start in November, applies to certain 2009-2012 Jetta and Jetta Sportwagen and 2010-2012 Golf and Audi A3 vehicles, according to an announcement from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

continue

Progressive announced Wednesday that its profits for the third quarter of 2011 were down 42 percent compared to the same period last year.

The auto and home insurer, which suffered major losses from Hurricane Irene and other natural disasters, said in a release that net income for the quarter fell from $261.6 million in 2010 to $150.7 million this year.

Net income for September decreased 6 percent, from $81.9 million last year to $77.1 million in 2011, despite a 5 percent increase in total personal auto policies for the month and a 4 percent increase for the year to date.

continue