Despite decisions by some carriers to limit coastal coverage, Connecticut”™s property-and-casualty insurance offerings earned a “B” from the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Heartland Institute.
The organizations graded state insurance markets according to the freedom consumers have in buying policies, as well as the latitude carriers enjoy in structuring policies.
By those standards, Connecticut has among the 10 top insurance markets in the country, the organizations found. In the Northeast, the Nutmeg State trailed only Vermont which led the nation.
“Connecticut … consumers have a plethora of choices in all fields ”“ the markets are among the nation”™s least concentrated ”“ and insurers have enjoyed remarkably stable loss ratios,” said Eli Lehrer, senior fellow at CEI and the Heartland Institute, in his report. “The state, however, has some limitations on the use of territorial rating, and consumers and insurers complain about slow turnaround times in some parts of Connecticut”™s insurance department.”
Five states received an “F” with Massachusetts listed as the most dysfunctional insurance market in the country; New York barely avoided that group with its “D” grade.
A separate study last month from the Consumer Federation of America found that Connecticut has the third most competitive auto market in the nation.
