Just before the end of the most recent legislative session, the General Assembly created a task force to look at auto insurance rates.
Senate Concurrent Resolution 111 establishes the Automobile Insurance Reform Task Force.
The task force will include members of the General Assembly and representatives from the Department of Insurance and the insurance industry.
Their objectives will be to curb rising insurance costs, reform medical payment structures and help residents and businesses keep more of their wages.
Another goal is to adapt state systems and standardize one of the largest drivers of auto insurance expenses - the cost of medical care after vehicle accidents.
The hope is to help ratepayers save money - especially low and middle-income families.
"The idea of sitting down with professionals with our friends in the General Assembly, friends from the Department of Insurance, friends from industry, to try to find ways to control costs is a great idea,” said Insurance Commissioner Trinidad Navarro. “What folks don't necessarily know is we, the Department of Insurance, we've been doing this for quite some time. We did this with the help of the General Assembly when we looked at workers' compensation claims."
With severe weather like flooding and wind damage seen in Delaware, the task force will also look to provide proactive, data-driven reforms around climate adaptation.
Navarro says his department and the state have been successful in the past with a task force looking to curb costs.
"We, with the workers’ compensation task force, the General Assembly and the Department of Insurance and many others put together a fee schedule so that it was clear what a doctor or a provider could charge for a certain type of treatment," said Navarro.
Navarro notes there’s no current timeline for the task force’s work.
