State Commissioner Rejects Bid for Insurance Rate Increase
A request for rate increases reaching 25 percent along the coast was turned down by the state insurance commissioner and has been scheduled for a July 23 hearing.
The North Carolina Rate Bureau, which represents the industry, had asked for an average 18.7-percent hike statewide, with increases even higher in coastal counties. Western counties would have seen a much lower increase, according to the state Department of Insurance.
“We are not in agreement with the Rate Bureau’s proposed increases filed Nov. 17, 2017. The next step, according to statute, is to set a hearing date,” Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey said in a statement Friday.
“After hearing and reading the more than 9,000 comments from residents across the state and studying the figures in the filing, it is now necessary to hold a hearing to reach a resolution that will make the most financial sense for our residents and insurance companies.”
The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in the Second Floor Hearing Room in the Albemarle Building, 325 N. Salisbury St., Raleigh.
An order of no change resulted from the last request for an increase, which was in 2014. In 2012, a request for a 17.1 percent increase was reducd to 7 percent, which took effect in 2013.
