Farmers auto insurance hike OK’d

Friday, March 27, 1998 | 10:13 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- This is no April Fool's Day joke: Farmers Insurance Exchange will raise its auto rates an average of 1.9 percent beginning April 1.

State Insurance Commissioner Alice Molasky-Arman Thursday approved the company's rate increase application for the 175,000 vehicles it covers in Nevada.

While the average rate increase statewide is less than 2 percent, the increases will be much higher for Las Vegas motorists because of the high number of losses in Southern Nevada.

Rates for bodily injury-property damage coverage, required by state law, will rise anywhere from .5 percent to 8.1 percent depending on where a policy holder lives.

Molasky-Arman approved an average rate decrease of 3.6 percent for Mid-Century Insurance Co., a Farmers' affiliate that insures 25,000 cars for mostly high-risk drivers.

Mid-Century's rates for bodily injury-property damage will decrease as much as 4.8 percent in some sections of Clark County. In other areas, the rates will increase by 2.4 percent.

In its rate increase application filed in January, Farmers said it lost $92.9 million on its Nevada business in the past 10 years and $8.5 million alone in 1996. No figures were supplied for 1997.

The new rates for both companies become effective April 1 and include new and renewal business. The last increase for both companies was November 1996 when Farmers was allowed to boost rates 12 percent and Mid-Century raised premiums 8 percent.

Meanwhile Country Mutual Casualty Insurance Co., which provides coverage for 16,773 vehicles in Nevada, has proposed a .8 percent decline in rates. About 4,700 vehicles in Clark County are insured by the company.

Molasky-Arman will decide later on the application.