Early this year, Nevada legislators were considering a bill that would provide more affordable car insurance policies to low-income families. The bill had gained momentum in Las Vegas in its early days, but support waned as months passed without comprehensive amendments. It was announced that the Nevada Senate had terminated the bill, leaving its sponsor, Assemblyman Kelvin Atkinson, to go back to the drawing board.
Atkinson expressed his disappointment with the lack of Republican support for the bill, but has hopes that a similar measure will be passed in the future.
If the bill had been successful, it would have allowed families who fell below the federal poverty level an opportunity to obtain inexpensive car insurance. To help finance this effort, 50 cents would have been added to the state’s existing car insurance policies. The bill had gained support from a number of consumer advocacy groups as well as a modest number of Republicans.
The bill was first approved by the Senate Commerce, Labor and Energy Committee, but it never made it to the Senate. This is partly due, according to Atkinson, to the state’s Insurance Division, officials of which were unsure how many people would qualify for the program. Adding to the doubt was State Farm, who claimed the program would only reduce premiums by $50. The company neither opposed nor supported the bill, but noted that it would provide only meager improvements to the state’s insurance industry.
