A goodly number of years ago the Oregon State Legislature enacted Financial Responsibility statutes which evolved into the Mandatory Insurance Statutes in place today. To begin the law simply said that if a driver was involved in, and at fault for, an accident that driver was responsible for the losses and/or injury to another as the proximal consequence of that accident. They were liable; or, had created a Tort responsibility towards the injured party(s).
Later, the law was changed to say that if a driver was involved in, and at fault for, an accident, that person must have; 1) deposited a Bond, an amount of cash, with the State; or, 2) purchased insurance; to cover the damages and/or injury of others.
More recently, laws were enacted which made the deposit of Bond or purchase of insurance mandatory. At the time those first Mandatory Insurance statutes were enacted, the claim was that if everyone paid their fair share, everyone’s insurance rates would be lower than the rates paid by those who did carry insurance at the time. The promised reduction of rates has never really appeared, even after adjusting for inflation.
Now, the laws are such that a person who doesn’t own a car is required to buy Named Operator Insurance so their Operators License is not summarily suspended for lack of insurance on a car they don’t own. And, since an auto can not be licensed without proof of current insurance this means any car a non-owner drives is double insured. Among the poor, a non-owner operater is becoming very common.
It appears the real benefit derived from the Mandatory Insurance laws are enjoyed by an extremely narrow, and wealthy, segment of the population. The Insurance Companies.