DETROIT (WXYZ) — There’s a lot of fanfare today in Detroit for the arrival of an auto insurance company. That’s because many consider it to be part of the solution when it comes to insurance equity in the city and throughout the state.
“I have another company that I was paying something like $320 a month. Buddy of mine told me about CURE,” said Tim Moore, a Detroit resident. “I finally called them, they cut my rate in half. I mean for them to do that, it was so dramatic. I don’t know. It was just hard to believe really, here in Detroit.”
Tim Moore lives downtown and while he loves the city, changes to insurance are much needed.
“We’ve lost residents because of it, because of insurance premiums in the city. So, it’s important that we have benefits like that to keep people here and to have people come back,” said Moore.
One of the companies working to change things is CURE Auto Insurance. There was great fanfare Wednesday as they opened a new office in Detroit, even a ribbon cutting celebration with city leaders.
Mike Duffy asked Mayor Duggan how CURE would help bring equity to the insurance market.
“The old system was great if you were wealthy enough to pay five thousand a year. The old system was terrible if you were low-income and you had nothing. We had two standards and CURE is now working to bridge that,” said Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan.
He says CURE is showing drivers what their options are now that the no-fault law has changed.
“They got 70% of the people who have bought their insurance didn’t have insurance before. And that means that our residents are protected and do have coverage if they need it for the first time,” said Duggan.
But I didn’t just want to take his word for it so I went straight to CURE’s CEO Eric Poe.
WXYZ’s Mike Duffy asked, “How will this make things more equitable for Detroiters?”
“Well, the fact that we don’t use credit scores is very important. There’s a large portion of Detroiters that are on Medicaid. A lot of these Detroiters are simply being discriminated against because they have a lot of credit card debt. But they might be safe drivers. And when you lower the actual cost of covering an insurance policy in the state of Michigan, and then you don’t use credit scores, the people that reap the largest benefit are residents that are being discriminated against because of those credit scores,” said Eric Poe, CEO CORE Auto Insurance.
Poe says they don’t use any income proxies to categorize people. He’s fought hard against it, even testifying in front of Congress on the issue.
“We choose not to do it simply because we think it’s wrong,” said Poe.
They’re currently providing policies for 75,000 Michiganders.
So, what have the results been?
“42% is the average savings of somebody who joins CURE. And on top of that, 40% of all the drivers who buy insurance with us couldn’t afford insurance prior to getting a policy with us,” said Poe.
