This is the BUSINESS LEAD of the DAY!
"Insurance agents: New rules will cost jobs; Changes eliminate special niche for high-risk coverage" by Jeffrey Krasner, Globe Staff | March 12, 2009
At a raucous Beacon Hill meeting yesterday, more than 100 insurance agents told Insurance Commissioner Nonnie S. Burnes that rules taking effect April 1 will put them out of business and increase the number of uninsured drivers on Massachusetts roads.
See: Insurance Companies in Good Hands in Massachusetts
The agents, who for years have specialized in providing auto insurance policies to high-risk and inner-city drivers, said Burnes's "managed competition" means low-income and immigrant communities will be left without access to insurance agents who are equipped to handle their business.
Ooooooooh, so THAT is why the GLOBE CARES SO MUCH!! The POOR ILLEGALS are going to left without insurance!!!! Wow, does that Jewish propaganda rag and mafia mouthpiece ever hate Americans.
"We took all comers who walked through our doors," said Marie-Armel Theodat of Theodat Insurance Agency in Boston. "We did everything you needed us to do. Now you're telling us the state has a right to put us out of business. It's not fair."
At issue is a system established in the 1970s in which special agents were authorized to exclusively write policies for customers who would end up in the state's pool of high-risk drivers.
See next article below.
But as of April 1, the system will be ended, and all insurance agents will have to write policies to such drivers. Taking away the niche business will leave scores of special agents without a livelihood, because they haven't been offered contracts with insurance companies. Burnes said there are 142 such agents in the state.
At yesterday's State House meeting, questions to Burnes were interrupted by applause, cheers, and catcalls. Agents said they had been promised contracts by insurance companies, but the insurers have reneged.
Oh, your kidding?!!
"We spent all these years writing the business nobody wanted to touch," said Paul D. Wasgatt, owner of Safeside Insurance Agency in Worcester. "We dealt with the companies, we wrote policies with low limits that nobody else wanted. Now the insurance companies are saying, 'Too bad, you can't have a contract.' "
Now you know what happens when you serve the power structure and expect loyalty in return. Tough lessson, 'eh?
Separately, the agents said many of their low-income and immigrant clients move frequently. Notices to tell them their policies will expire April 1 are in some cases being returned as undeliverable by the post office, they said. As a result, drivers may wind up inadvertently driving an uninsured vehicle.
"The Commonwealth is creating a big risk," said Peter Savage, a Brockton agent. The special agents displayed a map they said showed most of those without a contract under the new system are in low-income urban areas including parts of Boston, Lawrence, Brockton, and Springfield.
Great! Just down the frikkin' road!
Burnes countered with a series of graphs she said illustrated that special agents who are not being picked up by insurance companies are equally distributed throughout the state.
"I know this transition is difficult for people, and I don't mean to pooh-pooh that," said Burnes in an interview after the meeting. "But we are just not seeing the kind of discrimination" the agents are alleging. "I take that very seriously."
If she can say it, I can type it!
"There's an issue and we'll figure out a way to help these people," she added. "I don't know what the answer is yet."
Some agents want the system's dismantling delayed a year. State Representative Martin J. Walsh, a Dorchester Democrat, said, "This policy seems like it's company-driven. A Democratic administration is making it as profitable as possible for companies to come into the state who didn't want to deal with our policies before."
Yeah, I'm still adjusting to the betrayal and its already been a couple of years!
The fate of the special agents, formally known as exclusive representative producers, is another facet of the ongoing implementation of the revamped auto insurance system, begun last April 1. Burnes also faces strong opposition to an effort to phase out an independent board that allows drivers found at fault for an accident to challenge surcharges on premiums. About 50,000 cases are appealed annually, and about half of the surcharges are overturned by the board. Burnes said she is working on new guidelines for motorists' appeals to insurers.
Yeah, see how CITIZENS are just an AFTERTHOUGHT to the AGENDA-PUSHING GLOBE?
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And about those UNINSURED ILLEGALS:
"Driver charged after 3 children hit by SUV
Three children on their way home from school were injured yesterday when they were struck by a sport utility vehicle just before 4 p.m. near the intersection of Endicott and Millbury streets, police said. The driver - Khai Nguyen, 41, of Knowles Road - fled the scene when a language barrier kept him from communicating with witnesses who surrounded his car, said Officer Thomas Feraco of the Worcester police.
But God help the Globe if they ever used the words "illegal" and "immigrant" together. Citizens at least have a rudimentary English. They need it to pass the test, so you know this guy was an illegal. And he hit a bunch of kids!
Two girls, ages 12 and 6, and a boy, 5, who are siblings and students at Quinsigamond Elementary School, had been dropped off by their school bus minutes before being struck, Feraco said. Nguyen had the green light when he proceeded through the intersection, Feraco said. Nguyen was cited with three counts of leaving the scene of an accident involving a personal injury and three counts of failing to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk. The unidentified children were taken to the University of Massachusetts Medical Campus on Lake Avenue North, Feraco said. The 12-year-old suffered a cut to her forehead and received 12 stitches. The 6-year-old had severe head trauma and broke her right leg, but both girls were in stable condition, Feraco said. The 5-year-old received minor cuts and has been released from the hospital. Feraco said all three children were expected to recover.
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