Next June, driving without insurance will be made illegal in Wisconsin. The law was recently approved as part of their budget, making Wisconsin the 49th state to make insurance mandatory.
The law will be enacted starting June 1, 2010 as Wisconsin’s Department of Transportation works out some of the finer details. Drivers are going to be required to carry proof that they have auto insurance, which will be in the form of a card or a letter from an auto insurance provider.
Insurance policies will also have to have coverage up to $50 000, nearly double its current limit, for a single person injury and $15 000 for property damage. Officials believe that most drivers already have about $100 000 coverage for bodily injuries and $300 000 per accident, so they believe that these requirements will not put drivers at a big disadvantage.
Many argue that this new law puts low-income drivers at a disadvantage. Many of the drivers who are uninsured are not able to pay high insurance premiums, so this will hit these drivers especially hard. However, officials state that the fines incurred by driving without insurance will add up to far more than any insurance premium.
Another opposition against the new law is the question of whether or not making insurance mandatory will even be effective. In 2007, 15% of Wisconsin drivers were not insured, but this is less than 2% more than the national average of 13.8%, in states that have mandatory insurance. So, it begs the question: is mandatory insurance even necessary in Wisconsin?