Insurance industry officials say proposals buried in Gov. Jim Doyle's budget bill could lead to a jump in insurance coverage for individuals and businesses in Wisconsin.

Doyle is proposing to raise the minimum coverage requirement on auto insurance. Currently, those minimums are set at $25,000 for personal injury, $50,000 for occurrence, and $10,000 for property. Doyle proposes boosting the minimums to $100,000 for personal injury, $300,000 for occurrence, and $25,000 for property.

Andy Franken, president of the Wisconsin Insurance Alliance, says raising those caps would mean Wisconsin car insurance customers would see their rates jump by between 33 percent and 43 percent.

The hardest hit ratepayers would be low and middle income families and individuals, Franken said, because they often purchase the minimum level of insurance. But, he said the change would impact all ratepayers.

The proposal would give Wisconsin the highest minimums in the country, Franken said. Wisconsin is one of only two states, along with New Hampshire, to not mandate auto insurance.

Madison attorney Keith Clifford, former past president of the Wisconsin Association for Justice, said the change is overdue as the old minimums for auto insurance have been in place for nearly 30 years.

"The burden of costs of these cases has been shifted from liablity to health insurance and BadgerCare and Medicaid," Cliford said. The policy change "shifts the burden off health insurers and back onto liability insurance where it belongs."

Clifford said insurance customers shouldn't see a dramatic jump in costs due to the change. He said Wisconsin is one of two states that doesn't require drivers to carry auto insurance, yet Wisconsin is among the lowest in the nation for rates.

"The mandate on insurance has nothing to do with the cost of insurance, and coverage increases aren't going to have anything to do with it either," he said. "The fact is the minimums barely have anything to do with the rates."

In a separate proposal, Doyle alters the language joint and several liability for damages to "Any person found to be causally negligent whose percentage of causal
negligence is equal to or greater than the negligence of the person recovering."

Currently, the statute reads, "The liability of each person found to be causally negligent whose percentage of causal negligence is less than 51 percent is limited to the percentage of the total causal negligence attributed to that person. A person found to be causally negligent whose percentage of causal negligence is 51 percent or more."

Franken says that change would impact small and large businesses across the state and "jeopardize the litigation climate."

Clifford said the change in the joint and several language "takes the burden for severely injured people off society, and makes sure it's on people who are at fault.

"It doesn't make somebody who's not resposible and not negligent have to pay for anything," he said.

The proposals weren't included in the governor's executive summary of the budget bill, and Franken said insurance industry officials weren't consulted prior to the changes.

"It was buried deep in the budget and it wasn't one of the highlights, so I think that speaks for itself," Franken said.

State Insurance Commissioner Sean Dilweg Dilweg said there wasn't an attempt to hide the changes.

"I think the governor's main focus was securing the stimulus dollars ... and creating jobs. There were a lot of items that were not focused on that were in this budget," Dilweg said.

Dilweg said between now and the time the changes may be adopted, he will monitor the effect the provisions may have on the marketplace and the 211 insurance companies licensed in Wisconsin.

"I think that the governor's goal was to bring more certainty to consumers," he said.

The proposals will be under the scrutiny of the Legislature, he said.

"There's obviously the budget process, and I expect this to get some attention," he said.

Wisconsin Civil Justice Council, Inc. also issued a statment today crticizing a budget item they argue would repeal provisions that protect against predatory lawsuits.

Council spokesman Bob Fassbender called the repeal a "stimulus for lawsuit abuse," and predicted that, if enacted, the "joint and several liability" measure would lead to disproportionate penalties for workers involved in lawsuits.

See the WCJC statement here.

See a statement from the Wisconsin Association for Justice here.

-- By Greg Bump