Motor insurance, tight deadlines and a North-South divide to be resolved: what stage is the reform at?

While the maneuver aims to ferret out vehicles circulating without insurance, the car insurance reform continues, but with some open issues. Two distinct themes but with a specific weight for citizens: the first intervenes on vehicle controls; the second concerns the way in which the price of the policies is formed.

This last aspect is contained in the competition law bill, approved by the Government in the summer and now being examined by the Chamber. The text does not contain immediate measures but a delegation: once in force, the Executive will have four months to adopt the legislative decrees that will give shape to the reform, from the bonus-malus to the rules on direct compensation.

Here we encounter the first node, that of times. In the document filed with the Productive Activities commission, Ivass, the insurance supervisory authority, judges the term to be "particularly narrow" for carrying out impact analyzes and coordinating the new rules with "fragmented" and stratified rules, and proposes to lengthen it or proceed in phases. The Government, however, has shortened the time for implementing texts, to speed up the process in view of the end of the legislature.

The issue is linked to the political weight of the topic, felt especially in some areas of the South, where premiums are historically higher than in the North. It's the second node. Ivass warns that reducing the weight of the territory with "explicit tariff constraints" could be incompatible with the tariff freedom established by Europe.

The indicated path passes through more information on individual risk: additional "verifiable and transparent" criteria to reward virtuous drivers, voluntary deductibles useful "even in areas characterized by greater frequency or cost of accidents" and a strengthened obligation to contract against "excessively high and not anchored to technical parameters" premiums.