Our Mission:

OSAR is a Political Action Committee whose purpose is to sponsor bills that protect consumers and their vehicles when in need of repairs.

Current laws are weak and are not being enforced by the Insurance Commissioner or the Attorney General. Both the Insurance Commissioner and the Attorney General acknowledge this, and have stated that they would enforce stronger laws that carried stiff penalties.

The majority of auto collision repairs are paid for by insurers or third parties, any new laws must take this into consideration.

Currently, within the collision industry insurance companies control over 95% of the collision shops. They dictate how repairs are made and how much the repairs will cost. Not only does this tie the hands of auto shop owners but it also eliminates the possibility for competition in the marketplace. This imbalance leads to a vast majority of repairs (over 90%) being completed unsafely or improperly. It also leaves the consumers being under-compensated for insurance claims.

Insurance companies are paid premiums by consumers to guarantee that the complete cost of repairs and other claims will be covered in the event of an accident. These consumers are lead to believe the money paid by them is the correct amount.

The results of the imbalance between charging premiums for complete claim coverage and low artificial claims pay outs are:

• Fraud
• Artificially raising insurer profits (up to 19% Safeco 2006)
• Placing thousands of consumers in unsafe vehicles
• Place thousands of low value vehicles on the road