The proposal to raise homeowners’ insurance rates has been a hot topic of conversation lately for Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey, and he wants the people of North Carolina to understand one thing: He’s not the one asking for it.

In fact, Causey said on Tuesday’s TownTalk, he has said “no” to every request brought to him for consideration by the N.C. Rate Bureau, the group that is proposing the rate increase.

Causey is running for a third term as insurance commissioner and has two Republican challengers in the upcoming March primary elections.

Since the announcement was made a couple of weeks ago to raise rates by more than 40 percent, Causey said he and his office have gotten close to 10,000 comments. And, not surprisingly, he noted, those comments overwhelmingly are against a rate hike.

“Everybody’s basically saying the same thing,” he said in comments recorded on Monday for air on Tuesday’s program. Prices have gone up at the grocery store and the gas pump and folks can’t handle a bump in insurance rates.

The most recent rate hike came back in 2020 and after all was said and done, the original proposal of about 22 percent was negotiated down to about 8 percent, Causey said.

The General Assembly established the rate bureau in 1977 and Causey said it has created “a healthy and stable insurance market” for the state since its inception.

There was a public hearing held in Raleigh on Monday – it’s all part of the process in place when a rate hike is proposed. Causey said public comment will be open until Feb. 2.

With thousands of comments already received, Causey said he expects that number to get even  larger.

“It’s a big turnout because it’s such a big request,” he said.

Causey said he wants to bring more insurance companies to North Carolina to create more competition among carriers and to allow customers to shop around for the best rates. What he doesn’t want, however, is for” insurance companies charging us extra to pay their executives more.”

Visit www.ncdoi.gov and click on the link to send your comments about the proposal rate hike.

The Department of Insurance handles all sorts of issues, not just insurance rate hikes. Sharing relevant information to educate the public about insurance issues also is a part of what his department does, too.

“It’s important that people have a local insurance agent,” he said, to make sure you have the right kind of coverage for you or your business.

Those commercials for online agencies may sound tempting, but Causey said nothing can replace that local agent you can phone or visit to get your questions answered.

With a background as an insurance agent himself, Causey said his best tip is to make sure you have replacement value coverage.

“If you don’t have replacement value coverage, you get cash value,” he said. So that expensive furniture that set you back a few thousand dollars a few years ago has now depreciated, so if you submit a claim to replace it, without replacement value coverage, you’re only going to get that depreciated value.

“Replacement value coverage will pay for a brand-new item, regardless of the cost (of the lost item),” Causey said.

Email Causey at mike.causey@ncdoi.gov.

 

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