The insurers rule this industry and, apparently, most shops like it that way.
Despite the audacious behavior of insurers controlling every aspect of a collision repairers business – from applying pressure to use inferior parts to consumer steering – not enough shop owners see the value of fighting them on the federal level.
Just think about how they make you change your approach to this business. You're forced into doing the best job you can do under the circumstances that are dictated by the insurers. (That is if you can get them to steer customers to you.) Even so, for a very large number of you, just the thought of trying to overturn the McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945 is too daunting.
For those of you who feel this way, you do have a valid point. With a law that's been in effect 65 years in which its benefactor has used it to dominate a market unfettered, it is pretty much taken for granted that the status quo has the upper hand. The lobbying prowess of the insurers can't be dismissed either.
So rather than waste time at the federal level, there is a number of shop owners who prefer to fight the insurers on state, regional or even case-by-case basis.
Their feeling is based on the notion that they have strong and workable relationships with their local and state representatives. And if they don't have those relationships, they feel it's easier and more productive to develop them at these levels, rather than fight the big fight at the federal level. Indeed some states have some glowing successes, but they are far and few between when considering that the entire industry is being held captive by one interest group.
The grass roots approach is an appealing one because the taste of small victories can be as sweet as big ones. However, it's too easy for insurers to divide and conquer shops with this approach. In fact, that's what they have done and keep doing successfully. It's almost as if the insurers are playing cat and mouse with the industry. Do they allow some of the small victories knowing many shops will view this as progress and the road to change? In effect, though, it keeps the industry off guard and divided. If you consider nothing else, just stop and think about how much time and effort goes into this piecemeal approach for what you get out of it, and it becomes clear that the state strategy is not only tiresome but downright ineffective.
Running parallel to this issue is the insurers' dominance over our health care system. I mention this because the insurers have been under fire for more than a year. And even though they seem somewhat bulletproof, they certainly would not like to see another raging debate from the collision repair industry. Although the deep pockets of the insurers may be filing up some of the pockets of our legislators, the latter may just be a tad more receptive to hearing about unfair practices since that's what they've been hearing incessantly. And maybe not. However, change is more likely now than ever before because the ruling political party tends to be more regulatory.
Ask yourself, "How is this industry going to have a longstanding law changed when it doesn't speak with one voice?" Well, it's not. The debate can't be solved through our legislators when the collision repair industry's arguments are disjointed and scattered. Worse, as important as this issue is, I'm not sure this issue has been adequately debated. I commend the Automotive Service Association for championing this issue and hope that it will call a summit of all concerned parties to debate it openly and frankly. I would think some consumer advocate groups might want to be invited too.
In the meantime, the insurers continue to rule your lives.
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