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For years, New Yorkers have lived with some of the highest auto insurance premiums in the country. Those premiums are driven not by safer roads or better coverage but by outdated laws, systemic fraud and a legal framework that rewards abuse while penalizing honest drivers.

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s new plan to tackle skyrocketing auto insurance costs deserves support not only because it promises relief for drivers, but because it signals a long-overdue reset of a broken system.

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Today, the average New Yorker pays roughly $336 a month for car insurance, totaling just over $4,000 a year — nearly $1,500 more than the national average. Downstate costs are often even higher. But even in western New York and the Capital Region, drivers pay significantly more than their counterparts elsewhere in the country for the same coverage.

Every staged crash, exaggerated injury and fraudulent legal claim quietly drives up premiums for law-abiding drivers. Industry estimates suggest that fraud alone........

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