Legislation Reintroduced to Raise Minimum Insurance Limits for Trucks

Reps. Chuy Garcia, D-Ill., and Hank Johnson, D-Ga., have reintroduced the Fair Compensation for Truck Crash Victims Act to increase the minimum insurance requirement for interstate motor carriers from $750,000 to $5 million, a five time increase. The bill also indexes the new minimum insurance requirement to match inflation.

While the bill isn’t likely to go anywhere due to the partisan nature of co-sponsors and level of support, NAMIC generally opposes legislation that drastically raises minimum limits largely because it will result in coverage being much more expensive and create affordability issues by forcing truckers to pay for coverages they don’t want.

As is the case with many policy proposals, there are also potential unintended consequences to ideas such as these, including the temptation of driving uninsured. This year, lawmakers are actively attempting to get more involved in all parts of the property/casualty insurance industry, and NAMIC is working to educate lawmakers on the different ways Congress can cause unforeseen problems for the insurance industry at large.