密歇根新闻广播 汽车保险费取决于你住的街道

汽车保险费取决于你住的街道

Detroit has the highest auto¹ insurance costs in the nation. Depending on the survey, it costs somewhere between seven thousand and ten thousand dollars a year.

A lot of the cost is wrapped up in Personal Injury Protection. A recent series of stories in Crain's Detroit in cooperation with Bridge magazine reveal that portion of auto insurance has skyrocketed because of high medical claims. But, those premiums³ greatly depend on where you live.

Chad Livengood is the reporter who's been writing those Crain's Detroit stories. I asked him to join me in the MorningSide neighborhood of Detroit. Mack Avenue separates MorningSide from the suburb of Grosse Pointe.

"On the Grosse Pointe side they're getting a 30 to 50 percent discount on the Personal Injury Protection portion of their premium² and on the Detroit side they're getting a 50, 60, or over 100 percent increase in their Personal Injury Protection simply because of where they live," Livengood said.

The people in Detroit know the cost of that.

Deyona Vance indicated she found out when she moved back to Detroit.

"It shot up to close to $500. So, my experience is horrible. Financially, it's just terrible because it's like I'm paying more for my insurance than I'm paying for my car," she said.

Michael Mumaw lives in MorningSide and said insurance is extremely high in Detroit.

"I actually have a friend right now who's moving to Columbus, Ohio and his insurance dropped almost $400 a month," he said.

James Pierce talked to me about his insurance rates.

"For a 2003 Chrysler minivan, I'm paying $189 a month."

LG: $189?

"Yes, a month."

LG: That's not bad compared to some of the other ones.

"But, it's No-Fault coverage⁴, it's not for full coverage."

Each of them thought it was unfair that people just down the street were paying so much less than they were.

"Redlining has been outlawed⁵ for years, yet the insurance code allows for territorial⁶ based rating systems," said Todd Berg. He's an attorney at Michigan Auto Law, a firm based in Farmington Hills.

Berg says that Personal Injury Protection –also called PIP- is a real value if you need it.

"If somebody is injured in a car accident, No-Fault PIP pays for all of their medical expenses, it also provides wage loss benefits for up to three years, and it also provides replacement⁷ services benefits," he explained.

It is the best coverage in the nation. But, if you can't pay for it, it does you no good, and a lot of people in Detroit cannot pay the price.

Not only is that premium for Personal Injury Protection more than many people in Detroit can afford to pay, it's much higher than their neighbors across the street in Grosse Pointe pay.

Pete Kuhnmuench is with the Insurance Alliance of Michigan.

"Obviously, in urban areas there's more concentration of vehicles, more traffic, unfortunately a higher rate of theft and things of that nature. So…"

LG: In this particular case, they've separated out just the Personal Injury Protection costs. So, what's happening in Detroit that's not happening in Grosse Pointe based on that?

"If you remember, Mayor Duggan had an actuarial report done which found that the claims costs in the city were nearly twice as much as what they were in outstate."

And there are other factors – such as a person's credit score, gender⁹, age, marital¹⁰ status – they all can contribute to higher auto insurance rates.

Everyone seems to agree that auto insurance is too high. A recently failed legislative¹¹ proposal to reduce rates suggested forcing doctors and hospitals to charge less. It also proposed going after fraud and reducing the level of coverage required by law in exchange for lower premiums. But, that would have left some people who live on the Detroit side of the street still paying high premiums for worse coverage.

Support for the Detroit Journalism¹² Cooperative on Michigan Radio comes from the John S. and James L. Knight¹³ Foundation, the Ford⁸ Foundation and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

1 auto   

n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车

参考例句：

• Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
• The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。

2 premium   

n.加付款；赠品；adj.高级的；售价高的

参考例句：

• You have to pay a premium for express delivery.寄快递你得付额外费用。
• Fresh water was at a premium after the reservoir was contaminated.在水库被污染之后，清水便因稀而贵了。

3 premiums   

n.费用( premium的名词复数 )；保险费；额外费用；（商品定价、贷款利息等以外的）加价

参考例句：

• He paid premiums on his life insurance last year. 他去年付了人寿保险费。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Moves are afoot to increase car insurance premiums. 现正在酝酿提高汽车的保险费。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

5 outlawed   

宣布…为不合法（outlaw的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• Most states have outlawed the use of marijuana. 大多数州都宣布使用大麻为非法行为。
• I hope the sale of tobacco will be outlawed someday. 我希望有朝一日烟草制品会禁止销售。

6 territorial   

adj.领土的，领地的

参考例句：

• The country is fighting to preserve its territorial integrity.该国在为保持领土的完整而进行斗争。
• They were not allowed to fish in our territorial waters.不允许他们在我国领海捕鱼。

7 replacement   

n.取代，替换，交换；替代品，代用品

参考例句：

• We are hard put to find a replacement for our assistant.我们很难找到一个人来代替我们的助手。
• They put all the students through the replacement examination.他们让所有的学生参加分班考试。

8 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。

9 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

10 marital   

adj.婚姻的，夫妻的

参考例句：

• Her son had no marital problems.她的儿子没有婚姻问题。
• I regret getting involved with my daughter's marital problems;all its done is to bring trouble about my ears.我后悔干涉我女儿的婚姻问题, 现在我所做的一切将给我带来无穷的烦恼。

11 legislative   

n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的

参考例句：

• Congress is the legislative branch of the U.S. government.国会是美国政府的立法部门。
• Today's hearing was just the first step in the legislative process.今天的听证会只是展开立法程序的第一步。

12 journalism   

n.新闻工作，报业

参考例句：

• He's a teacher but he does some journalism on the side.他是教师，可还兼职做一些新闻工作。
• He had an aptitude for journalism.他有从事新闻工作的才能。

13 knight   

n.骑士，武士；爵士

参考例句：

• He was made an honourary knight.他被授予荣誉爵士称号。
• A knight rode on his richly caparisoned steed.一个骑士骑在装饰华丽的马上。