A year and a half after its entry into force, the family car insurance reform proved to be a flop. If the goal of the rule introduced by the Giallorossi government was to reduce insurance premiums for young people and new drivers, the result is exactly the opposite. The data collected by IVASS in the Iper bulletin for the first quarter of 2021 show how the average premium paid by young people between 18 and 24 years old stands at 656 euros, against 364 euros paid in the age group between 45 and 59 years. In cities like Naples, the average price for young people within the age of 24 reaches 980 euros, 934 euros in Prato, 874 in Pistoia, 847 euros in Massa Carrara, 819 euros in Florence. Tuscany seems to have the most expensive prizes for young people, Piedmont the most contained. Basically, the children pay much more than their parents who, in theory, according to the family TPL rules, should instead be able to make the children benefit from their same insurance class.
Interpretive chaos reigns supreme
The amendment of art. 134 of the Insurance Code (CAP) decided last year introduced an extension of the requirements of the Bersani law, whereby by renewing a policy contract or insuring a new or used vehicle for the first time, it is possible to acquire the merit class of another vehicle of the same owner or of a permanently cohabiting family member. Among the innovations of the standard also the possibility of transferring the class of merit even between vehicles belonging to different types (cars, motorcycles, mopeds or vans). That rule, however, in turn contained a condition that had been suggested by IVASS with the intention of limiting arbitrage on the merit classes. It was proposed that the transition to the best class was allowed on the condition that one possesses a certificate of risk without accidents with fault in the previous 5 years. It is a pity, however, that the translation of this in the article into law was ambiguous and for this reason the insurance companies have found it easy to interpret the rule in another way. In other words, to access the best class of the family, it is necessary to have a depth, therefore an insurance history in the TPL of at least 5 years. Therefore, the new driver is excluded by default.
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Now Ania and Ivass are asking for the reform of the Bonus Malus
This situation, and not only this in reality, has led both IVASS, the institute that supervises insurance companies, and Ania, the association of companies, to urge the government to revise the Bonus-Malus, because by now it can no longer represent the actual risk of the policyholder. The truth is that in the past year there have been attempts, fallen on deaf ears, by the Ministry of Economic Development to give an interpretative line to the question of 5 years, but in the end someone raised the objection that it did not fall within the powers of the dicastery. IVASS could have exercised the powers recognized by the CAP to intervene with secondary legislation on the matter, but there would have been conflicting interpretative lines on the opportunity. In the face of the numerous complaints received since the middle of last year, Ivass has currently buffered the issue with a notice on the PreventIvass website in which it explains that companies can avail themselves of the right to interpret the rule as they see fit. The fact is that today it would be the case to put the law in hand because the anomalies created by the family RcAuto are not few in any case.
Airlines circumvent the rules with fare discounts
Always scrolling through the Ivass bulletin, we see that 85% of policyholders now fall into the highest merit class, class 1, totaling 43 million against a premium value of around 16 billion. This means that net of the effect of 5 years on young people, the mechanism worked for the other members of the family. Yes, this is true, but it is also true that insurance companies – which have never hidden that they do not share the norm – have found a way to mitigate the economic benefit linked to the best class by evading the rules. How? Through the use of coefficients, that is factors that, in the face of statistical evidence, allow insurance companies to intervene on the tariff. Or, more frequently, the somewhat unscrupulous use of discounts: once the rate is 100, a virtuous insured can be offered a discount of 80 percent, a less virtuous one 20 percent.
Insuring a moped can cost up to 2,500 euros
On the other hand, it should be remembered that in the last 6-7 years the rates have dropped by 35 percent. But there is still room for reducing average prices. This is accompanied by the fact that the percentages of people who do not insure themselves because they are unable to bear the cost of insurance remain high. Always to stay in Naples, the policy to insure a moped can cost even more than double the vehicle itself, with peaks of 2,500 euros. In this case, either the insurance premium is evaded or the vehicle is paid to the parents.