Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley is opposing a recently proposed home insurance rate request for 150,000 consumers, calling it illegally excessive. She made her remarks during her testimony before the commissioner of insurance last month. The rate hikes are proposed by the Massachusetts Property Insurance Underwriters Association (FAIR Plan), which consists of the state’s insurance companies. It is designed to provide coverage at reasonable rates to consumers who cannot obtain it in the open marketplace. This includes about 60,000 families on Cape Cod and other coastal areas where insurers are shedding business. The insurance industry is seeking the commissioner’s permission to raise rates for the FAIR Plan by an average of 7.4 percent across the state and by 10 percent in New Bedford, Fall River, Quincy, Lawrence, Brockton, Lynn, and parts of Boston. Homeowners on Cape Cod face a 6.7 percent rate hike under the industry proposal. Coakley argued that the proposed rate hike is largely based on “undisclosed hurricane models” that insurers claim predict the likelihood and damage of a major hurricane hitting Massachusetts. The attorney general said her office will be litigating to block the proposed rate increases.
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