{"id":187564,"date":"2026-04-06T20:30:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T20:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/187564\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T20:30:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T20:30:17","slug":"hochuls-push-to-slash-auto-insurance-rates-hits-a-speed-bump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/187564\/","title":{"rendered":"Hochul’s push to slash auto insurance rates hits a speed bump"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Senate<\/p>\n

Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, left, and Assembly Speaker Carl\u00a0E. Heastie, center, have both said Democrats in their respective chambers aren’t aligned with Hochul’s proposals intended to lower the cost of car insurance.<\/p>\n

Will Waldron\/Times Union\"Gov.<\/p>\n

Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed auto insurance changes as part of her state budget this year. They remain one of the top sticking points in discussions with state lawmakers.<\/p>\n

Lori Van Buren\/Times Union\"The<\/p>\n

The governor has rallied repeatedly in recent weeks in support of her state budget proposals, including her package of car insurance measures.<\/p>\n

Mike Groll\/Mike Groll\/Office of Governor Ka\"Assemblywoman<\/p>\n

Assemblywoman Jennifer Lunsford opposes Gov. Kathy\u00a0Hochul’s proposals, saying the state should enact tighter scrutiny on auto insurance companies instead of changing the state’s laws around litigation.<\/p>\n

Lori Van Buren\/Times Union\"Ashley<\/p>\n

Ashley Ranslow, New York director at the National Federation of Independent Business, supports Gov. Kathy Hochul’s insurance proposals, saying they would reduce costs for businesses.<\/p>\n

Mike Groll\/Mike Groll\/Office of Governor Ka<\/p>\n

ALBANY\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Gov. Kathy Hochul has yet to convince Democrats in the state Legislature that a slate of proposals she\u2019s pushing for in state budget negotiations to reduce auto insurance rates will do just that.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

She\u2019s seeking to cut costs for auto insurance companies by placing new limits on the amounts paid out to certain drivers after a crash, in hopes those savings will be passed on to policy holders.<\/p>\n

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Those changes would amend sections of state law that, Hochul has argued, can incentivize staged car crashes. Those incidents, which have become an underground criminal industry, can result in litigation that seeks to secure hefty payouts from auto insurers.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are making money off of staged crashes and the penalties are not severe enough to stop,\u201d Hochul said at a news conference in Broome County. \u201cThere\u2019s a whole ring going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The general idea has broad support, including from those companies, who\u2019ve lobbied Democrats in the state Legislature for their passage in recent months. There has also been support from trade groups that represent small and large businesses across New York.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe only way to make insurance more affordable is to make it more available by addressing the root causes driving the cost of insurance,\u201d said Cassandra Anderson, president of the New York Insurance Association.<\/p>\n

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That idea has been met with resistance from Democrats in the state Legislature, who are skeptical insurance companies would choose to collect less from consumers if Hochul\u2019s proposals benefit their bottom line.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to make sure that if there\u2019s things the insurance companies can do to help lower prices, that they\u2019re doing that as well,\u201d said state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a Democrat from Westchester County.<\/p>\n

Yet few rank-and-file lawmakers have been willing to side against Hochul in public, instead offering their perspectives in private while negotiations around the state\u2019s spending plan drag on.<\/p>\n

Assemblywoman Jen Lunsford, a Democrat from Monroe County, was the lone member of the state Legislature who joined opponents of Hochul\u2019s proposal this week during a rally at the state Capitol.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI simply do not see rates being returned to New Yorkers, at all, that they will feel, that will justify the loss that injured people will have,\u201d Lunsford said.<\/p>\n

Hochul\u2019s proposed changes would overhaul how litigation seeking damages after a car crash is handled in state courts.<\/p>\n

New York is currently what\u2019s called a \u201cno-fault\u201d state. That means someone can receive a payout for economic damages, including medical bills and lost wages, regardless of whether they were at fault for a crash.<\/p>\n

Hochul wants to prevent damages from being awarded to drivers who are found to be more at-fault for an accident, even if the other driver\u2019s actions also contributed to the crash.<\/p>\n

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Her proposal would also narrow the definition of what\u2019s considered a serious injury for the sake of recovering non-economic damages, also known as pain and suffering, to largely exclude temporary injuries\u00a0that don\u2019t involve a fracture or the limitation of \u201ca body function or system,\u201d according to Hochul\u2019s proposed legislation.<\/p>\n

A third proposed change would also limit non-economic damages to $100,000 for drivers found to be driving while intoxicated, without insurance or\u00a0using the vehicle to commit a felony at the time of the accident.<\/p>\n

New York would not be the first state to make those kinds of changes in an effort to lower auto insurance rates.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been done in other states,\u201d said Ashley Ranslow, New York director at the National Federation of Independent Business. \u201cIt has proven to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Florida lawmakers approved a similar package of legislation in recent years as well. That state\u2019s changes were initiated in 2022 and 2023, and have since led to requested rate reductions from auto insurers in the Sunshine State.<\/p>\n

The five largest auto insurance companies in Florida, which represent more than three-quarters of the state\u2019s market, implemented average rate reductions of more than 6% last year, according to the Insurance Information Institute.<\/a><\/p>\n

That\u2019s not guaranteed to happen in New York if Hochul\u2019s proposals are approved by the state Legislature. It would not require auto insurance companies to reduce their rates.<\/p>\n

New York has a law on the books that mandates auto insurers return excess profits to policy holders. But those earnings are viewed through a six-year window, meaning one year of large profits won\u2019t necessarily result in a refund.<\/p>\n

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Hochul is proposing to extend that law but isn\u2019t seeking to change it. Democrats in the state Legislature have said they want tighter scrutiny on auto insurance companies if they\u2019re going to reach an agreement on Hochul\u2019s proposals.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re also concerned about the impact Hochul\u2019s proposals could have on drivers who aren\u2019t involved in staged crashes. Several Democrats oppose limiting damages for one party involved in a crash when both are partly at fault.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a pretty serious thing for people to accept,\u201d said Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie, a Democrat from the Bronx.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I could just blink my eyes and insurance rates will go down, I\u2019m sure my constituents will be happy,\u201d Heastie said. \u201cBut that\u2019s one of the issues we have to deal with.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Another issue lawmakers want to address as part of discussions with Hochul is how auto insurers determine the rates charged to different drivers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lunsford has introduced a bill that would prohibit insurance companies from charging drivers different rates based on a series of factors, including someone\u2019s marital status, educational background and geographic location in New York.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose have nothing to do with our driving records, with the likelihood of us filing a claim\u00a0\u2014 things that have an actuarial basis in reality for which someone might pay more,\u201d Lunsford said.<\/p>\n

Hochul has attributed the resistance from some lawmakers to the state\u2019s trial lawyers, who have historically been influential with Democrats in the state Legislature. Her proposals are expected to cut into the business model of personal injury attorneys.<\/p>\n

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She\u2019s argued that lawmakers oppose her proposals out of an interest to protect those attorneys\u00a0\u2014 not crash victims.<\/p>\n

Tom Stebbins, executive director of the Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York, which advocates against what it views as excessive litigation, said if that\u2019s not the case, lawmakers should prove it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time to shake the stink of past plaintiffs’ lawyer influence schemes and shenanigans and get on board with these reforms,\u201d Stebbins said.<\/p>\n

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Hochul and lawmakers are now beyond the April 1 deadline for the state budget and have begun to pass temporary extensions of spending as discussions continue in Albany.<\/p>\n

An earlier version of this story misstated the definition of a \u201cno-fault\u201d state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, left, and Assembly Speaker Carl\u00a0E. Heastie, center, have both said Democrats in their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187565,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[609,9,11,10,49,51,50,12,530,608],"class_list":{"0":"post-187564","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-government","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-news","12":"tag-new-york-state","13":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-state-news","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-state","17":"tag-transportation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}