Legislation Aimed at Providing Relief for Policyholders Passes House

Illinois State Representative Thaddeus Jones, D. Dist. 29. Photo provided by STH Media.
Illinois State Representative Thaddeus Jones, D. Dist. 29. Photo provided by STH Media.

Legislation Aimed at Providing Relief for Policyholders Passes House

By Tia Carol Jones

Legislation that would tackle the increase in homeowners and auto insurance has passed the Illinois House of Representatives. Illinois State Representative Thaddeus Jones, D. Dist. 29, championed the legislation, Senate Bill 1486, that would tackle homeowners and auto insurance increases.

Jones said that while the original legislation, House Bill 3977, was aimed at homeowners insurance rate increases, as Chairman of the House Insurance Committee, he included auto insurance rate increases. Jones said he wanted to add auto insurance to the legislation and bring in Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias. Giannoulias, through the Driving Change initiative, has been campaigning to end discriminatory and unfair auto insurance practices. 

“The problem is that for years, it has always been that if insurance companies wanted to raise rates, there was no regulatory control. They can raise it as much as they want to, as many times as they want to, and the Department of Insurance and the State of Illinois couldn’t do anything about it,” Jones said.

Jones said that the legislation changes the insurance companies’ ability to raise rates and making it where they have to go through a process of getting the rate increase approved by the Illinois Department of Insurance (IDOI). The legislation empowers IDOI to reject rate increases that it deems unfair for Illinois homeowners’ insurance, auto insurance and fire insurance policies.

 It also requires insurance companies to give customers a 60 day-notice before increasing rates in the double digits, and to give customers time to make decisions about their insurance coverage. It also decreases auto insurance premiums for drivers older than 55, who complete a four-hour defensive driving program or e-learning course.

Jones said that policyholders should really look at their insurance policies and read to see what their policy actually covers. He said policyholders should also have a conversation with their insurance agents about the type of coverage they are purchasing. Jones said that he heard from his constituents about the effects homeowners insurance rate increases were having on them. He said that they were devastated, because in some cases if the homeowners filed a claim for say, damage from a flood, the insurance company would increase the rates the next year.

“People can’t afford that, especially when they have simple sewage coverage or water coverage, or homeowners or renters’ insurance, which is sometimes not enough to cover the damage done to the house,” Jones said.

Jones said he has looked at the insurance companies’ profit margins and what they were charging consumers. He said he did it to make sure the average person would see significant savings when they purchased bundled insurance packages for home and auto. He said that the legislation will help consumers throughout the state of Illinois because there will now be a mechanism to provide transparency in the homeowners and auto insurance rate process. Jones said he is confident that the legislation will be passed in the Senate. He also encouraged people to contact their Illinois State Senators and ask them to pass Senate Bill 1486.

“We’re not just doing this in zip codes, we’re passing this legislation and it will be meaningful around the state of Illinois. Hopefully, it has an impact,” he said.



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