Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 5, 1994 TAG: 9408060015
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: By MAG POFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The company said it had 1.55 million customers in Virginia at the end of last year.
Most of the increase is coming in the bodily injury liability and medical expense benefits coverages, which pay for injuries to people. In the Roanoke Valley, the rates will rise 8 percent for bodily injury liability and 0.3 percent for medical expense benefits.
Prices for automobile collision and comprehensive coverages are going down for most customers, the company said. In the Roanoke Valley, this includes a 16 percent drop for comprehensive coverage.
State Farm said the net change in premiums for individual motorists will vary, depending on the type of coverage they carry, the type of cars insured, who drives them and when they're driven.
The company said insurance prices are going up primarily to cover increases in the costs of such items as hospitalization, physician fees and other health care costs.
As a result of these cost increases, the company said, its average annual claim cost per car for bodily injury liability coverage in Virginia rose 28 percent from 1990-93, while it went up 20 percent for medical payments coverage.
State Farm Mutual's last rate increase in Virginia was for 1.7 percent on May 1, 1991.
A spokeswoman for the State Corporation Commission said it receives notices of insurance rate increases but does not track the dates or compile the information. Thus, she could not say whether other insurers also are raising rates for Virginians.
Memo: NOTE: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.