Auto Insurance

In 1974, Colorado began to operate under the no-fault auto insurance system. When that law sunsetted, the Colorado legislature revisted our no-fault system, and developed a bill to create new no-fault system. The new bill did not pass, which caused Colorado to revert to the prior system, which is called a tort system. A tort system assigns fault to one driver in an accident, who is then responsible for medical claims of the victims and compensating them for damages.

Consumers United Association has been actively involved for many years in legislation concerning auto insurance. Our goals are to help ensure that all consumers:

• have cost-effective access to insurance;
• are working within a fair system that does not make responsible drivers who abide by the law pay for those who are not;
• are fully aware of the coverage they must have to pay for medical costs in an accident;
• do not end up paying twice for medical coverage;
• are not forced to wait months for claims to be resolved.

The major flaw of the current tort-based system is that consumers are not aware of what they need to do to ensure that their medical bills are covered if they are injured in an accident. As a result, many Coloradans are grossly under-insured and, should they experience a major automobile accident, they could wait years through a court process to have their medical bills covered by the at-fault driver.

However, it is important to note that there are benefits to tort insurance. Consumers have more control over the amount of medical coverage they need to obtain, rather than the total coverage that was in our no-fault system. The total coverage in our old system was very expensive and many consumers paid twice, because they had both medical insurance and coverage in their auto policies called PIP. Not all consumers need all that coverage. However…

Every consumer needs to ensure that they have at least $25,000 in medical insurance, Medpay in their auto insurance policy or cash, in order to pay for medical bills which will be reimbursed once the case is settled.

Almost every year, the legislature attempts to make changes to address the problem of people being under-covered. Some legislators have attempted to re-establish the no-fault system, while others have continued to address each problem with the tort system.

Below, you will find more information about this issue, including some of the history.

KGNU Radio Program on Auto Insurance
Listen to our interview with KGNU Radio on this subject to learn how important the tort vs. no-fault auto insurance system issue is to you:

KGNU interview with Consumers United Association about auto insurance

KGNU In-depth program on auto insurance

TAKE OUR BRIEF SURVEY ON AUTO INSURANCE

Each year, there are attempts to address perceived problems with the system with new legislation. Consumers United Association is very interested in knowing how our members feel about the auto insurance system in order to inform legislators. Please take a moment to take the auto insurance survey by clicking on the link above.

Some of the significant history of auto insurance legislation:

2003 Change from No-Fault to Tort

2004 - 2005

2006 Interim Legislative Committee Evaluates Tort System

2007

2008

2009