Skyrocketing car-insurance premiums are pushing inflation higher

[Zorro]

Soaring insurance premiums, particularly for autos, are fueling rising consumer prices and complicating policymakers’ attempts to beat back inflation.

Inflation cooled for much of the year before picking up this fall, with insurance prices for autos, homes and medical care fueling 15 percent of the increase in overall consumer prices, economists say. A double-digit spike in auto-insurance prices drove the vast majority of that rise.

Indeed, November’s hotter annual inflation gain of 2.73 percent would have been much lower, closer to a 2.37 percent inflation rate, without the outsize increase to auto insurance.

“It is punching well above its weight for that contribution,” said Josh Hirt, a senior economist at Vanguard.

https://wapo.st/3VC4i3m

[redstatebluegirl]

1. We are shopping for insurance again.

Ours went up 35%.

[Historic NY]

2. Could be the staggering increase in highway deaths in 2020 and 2021

have still not returned to pre-covid rates. People and the need for speed persists on the nations highways. We are a nation of distracted drivers.

https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2024-06-24/us-traffic-deaths-fall-in-early-2024-but-above-pre-covid-levels]

[Ann B]

3. The mission statement of one state

The Department of Banking and Insurance Mission Statement of one state says it all:
The mission of the Department of Banking and Insurance is to regulate the banking, insurance and real estate industries in a professional and timely manner that protects and educates consumers and PROMOTES THE growth, FINANCIAL STABILITY and efficiency of those industries. (Caps mine.)

[dalton99a]

4. Kick