A City Where No One Has Car Insurance

Fox Business ^ | 7/22/13 | Barbara Marquand

[DallasBiff]

As executive director for Publius, a voter-education nonprofit in Michigan, Vincent Keenan got well acquainted with an odd phenomenon in his hometown of Detroit: A troubling number of residents aren't registered to vote in the Motor City.

The reason has nothing to do with citizen apathy.

Instead they are registered to vote in the suburbs, where car insurance is cheaper. They use an address outside the city to renew their driver's licenses and register, then report that address to insurers. (See "Where the insurance cheaters live.")

"It's an amazingly pervasive piece of information about living in the city of Detroit that people pick up on incredibly quickly," Keenan says. "It is effectively a poll tax."

The impact on voter registration is just one of the consequences of the city's sky-high car insurance rates. Another: Lots of folks don't buy insurance.

Michigan has one of the highest uninsured driver rates, with an estimated 19 percent of motorists going without insurance, according to the latest Insurance Research Council study. But estimates for the uninsured rate in Detroit are even higher.

In a commentary for the Coalition Protecting Auto No-Fault, Melvin Butch Hollowell, former Michigan insurance consumer advocate, put the number at 60 percent.

Good driver? $4,000 a year

While Michigan's car insurance rates are already high compared with other states, Detroit's are in another league

[DallasBiff]

Detroit, a city that looks like our president's son.

[NEMDF]

You cannot renew your plates in Nebraska without proof of insurance. How does Michigan do that? The problem here is that, once your plates are renewed you can, theoretically, lapse the insurance. But I think we have a higher percentage of honest, hardworking folk around here than in the city of Detroit. JMHO

[cripplecreek]

Nothing has been more devastating to Detroit than this kind of crap.

[Trailerpark Badass]

Yeah, that's the problem with "self-governance," people have to actually govern themselves and behave like grown-ups.

We've obviously reached critical mass of people who can't do that.

[wetgundog]

Anyone caught driving without insurance, either by accident or being pulled over ought to have their car confiscated and theri driver’s license , if they have one, revoked immediately and the car sold at auction to fund the State un-insured liabilities to insured drivers.

FUBO and your feral “sons”

[Blood of Tyrants]

Detroit is Obama’s model city.

[cripplecreek]

You can call it dishonesty all you want but oppressive government tends to create criminals out of otherwise honest citizens.

After all, how many FReepers do as much as they can under the table to keep the King’s fingers out of their pockets?

[Neidermeyer]

My uncle (a NYC Cop) never had insurance ,,, just bought a car at the impound lot from his friends , drove it with whatever plate was on it and racked up dozens or hundreds of parking tickets until it was towed ,, then he’d buy another for $50 or so ... sometimes if he liked the car he’d buy the same one back... the tickets went to some dead end file since the car was never re-registered or went to the original owner. He lived near a highway exit out of Brooklyn where car thefts were rampant.

[Tenacious 1]

To make car insurance more affordable, some have suggested a public insurance system in Detroit, where the strapped city government is now under emergency management by the state.

This sounds like some of the other brilliant ideas that has made Detroit so successful over the past 50 years.

[Neidermeyer]

Florida has a 24% uninsured rate thanks high rates due to theft rings stealing cars to send out of the country quickly ,,, and the mexicans who never have insurance..

[cdcdawg]

That has to make things pretty interesting for the trial lawyers.

[ShadowAce]

OK--so mandating health insurance (ObamaCare) is bad, but mandating car insurance is good.

Got it.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

I’m thinking that if you buy a policy and lie about where you live AND the insurance company is able to prove this then there’s probably a clause in there that basically says that they don’t have to pay you if you file a claim.

[I want the USA back]

Another way the productive members of society pick up the tab for the obama voters.

[DuncanWaring]

Car insurance protects others on the road from your mistakes.

Health insurance does not.

Big difference.

[Moonman62]

OK--so mandating health insurance (ObamaCare) is bad, but mandating car insurance is good. Got it.

Car insurance is mandated by the states. Obamacare is a tax, which is the only way the feds can get away with it.

[cripplecreek]

Apparently its only legitimate for FReepers to go Galt. All others are criminals. LOL

[Buckeye McFrog]

When Pennsylvania had no-fault they did a survey and found that 3 out of 4 drivers in Philly were driving uninsured.

Michigan still has no-fault so far as I know.

[Alberta's Child]

Mandatory auto insurance doesn't involve collision, theft or comprehensive insurance. It involves liability insurance, which protects property owners, pedestrians, and other motorists in the event you do harm to them while driving your vehicle.

[Mister Da]

They use an address outside the city to renew their driver's licenses and register, then report that address to insurers.

Uh, this is insurance fraud. If you have an accident & the ins. co. investigates, they have legal reason to void the policy, leaving you with NOTHING.

So, basically, you are fraudulently paying for a product that will be worthless when you need it, & you might have some legal problems, too.

I guess that makes sense for anyone crazy enough to still live in Detroit.