Higher auto insurance rates on the way

Auto insurance liability minimums on new and/or renewed policies will go to 15-30-25 beginning Jan. 1, 2010. If you’re among the 40 percent of Louisiana’s 3.8 million drivers who buy minimum coverage, expect to see your rates go up maybe 13 percent, according to one loose estimate.

Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon, who pushed for higher minimums as a state representative during his last term in 2001 but was foiled by the insurance lobby, predicts the problem of drivers dropping insurance will be minimal though it’s inevitable that a certain number will.