Massachusetts auto insurers seek to thwart Romney's reform effort.

For the first time ever, Massachusetts auto insurance companies will seek a rate cut for drivers next year, according to two company officials involved in the deliberations.

The industry's proposal would guarantee Massachusetts drivers a break on their premiums and may make it more difficult for Governor Mitt Romney to sell lawmakers on a sweeping overhaul of the state's heavily regulated system for setting rates.

The two company officials, who asked for anonymity in advance of the rate filing tomorrow, said the auto insurance carriers will seek a 0.1 percent decrease in rates for 2006. While that is a negligible reduction, officials said that the industry's request is only the starting point for a rate-setting process that could yield a decrease of 5 percent or more.

Insurance Commissioner Julianne M. Bowler will set next year's rates in December after reviewing pricing proposals from the industry, Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly, and a division within her own state agency. Typically, the industry and Reilly are far apart on their rate proposals and the commissioner comes down somewhere in between. But never before has the industry started out with a negative number.

Insurance industry officials say they expect the commissioner will ultimately approve a reduction of about 5 percent, which would represent savings of about $55 off the current average statewide premium of $1,099.

Reilly indicated yesterday he thinks the decrease should be much larger, although he declined to tip his hand about what rate cut he will seek.

''Drivers deserve a rate reduction that is far more significant" than 0.1 percent, Reilly said. ''If that's the number, that's not going to fly. It's not going to hold up."

GEICO is one of the companies that Mitt would like to enter the Massachusetts market to compete with the corrupt and entrenched insurers who are part of the corrupt system that includes doctors, chiropractors, body shops, and lawyers. Over the border in NH auto insurance is voluntary, and half the cost of insurance in MA. Not only that, compliance is higher in NH when accident stats are taken in that there are fewer uninsured drivers in NH. Could it be that it is because it is cheaper?

Lawrence MA was the insurance fraud capital of the USA and was chronicled on either 20-20 or 60 minutes once. For example, when a city driver from Boston decides the car they bought is no longer worth the book value because of dings and dents and the road hazards of driving in such a city, and because they may never have changed the oil, or have burn holes in the seats because of burning dope seeds, they turn the car over to a professional staff that has it stolen for a couple of hundred bucks. It never shows up and the car owner now can collect the book value.

There are of course other scams but when the industry has never had any incentive to investigate them because every year the rates go up and the result is that there is more profit for the industry, not to mention the docs, lawyers and body shops, then why bother with competition? Let corruption reign.

On of the biggest scams in MA is mandatory coverage for auto glass replacement with no deductible. Drivers routinely smash their windshield after it gets a stone bruise from a passing gravel truck just to have a clear view. In NH we have a deductible and possibly more pitted windshields, but not more attributable accidents, and certainly lower insurance costs.

When we were still living in OR; and now here in SD, we get no-deductible windshield REPAIR.

It is an incentive to get rock dings fixed, before they become unrepairable.

If it needs replacement, then the deductible applies to either collision or comprehensive coverage, whichever is appropriate.

They have the same thing in MA except the usual practice is to take out the ball peen hammer and finish the job an hour before the auto glass guy arrives to fix the windshield on the spot. The truth is, if you don't take out the hammer, they do.

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