ALBANY – Auto-insurance rates for the more than 360,000 drivers in the state’s already costly high-risk pool are set to skyrocket next week by 20 percent, The Post has learned.
Drivers in New York City, where a good portion of those in the assigned-risk pool live, will be hit the hardest.
A high-risk driver in Brooklyn, which already has the highest rates in the state, will now pay around $5,000 a year for just basic coverage.
“Many of those who can least afford it are going to be paying through the nose for auto insurance,” said Blair Horner, of the New York Public Interest Research Group.
He fears the latest hikes will mean some drivers will choose to go without insurance.
The assigned-risk pool is the last resort for drivers who can’t obtain insurance in the regular market because of bad driving records.
The rate hikes will take effect on Aug. 15 for new policies and on Oct. 1 for renewals.
The 19.7 percent statewide average increase is far below the nearly 60 percent increase sought by the Automobile Insurance Plan Service Office, which administers the high-risk program for the state.
But it represents the third straight year rates for those in the high-risk pool jumped by 20 percent or more.
State insurance officials say they expect that rate increases for the assigned-risk pool, as well as for the regular market, will soon begin slowing, as reforms they enacted in 2001 take hold.
Insurance Department spokeswoman Terri Marchon noted that applications for the assigned-risk pool have dropped by 30,000 from last year – showing that drivers are finding less costly insurance in the regular market.
The Post reported last week that overall insurance rates in New York jumped a nationwide-high 8 percent in 2001, and that the state has the second-highest rates in the country, behind New Jersey.