(RALEIGH) -- A bill in the North Carolina Senate would gradually reduce the size of the state's high-risk automobile insurance pool would also reduce the premiums paid by all North Carolina drivers.  The high-risk pool, known as the North Carolina Reinsurance Facility, includes almost 1.4 million drivers, according to The Insurance Federation of North Carolina (IFNC).

IFNC is in favor of the measure. Twenty percent of drivers in North Carolina are in the high-risk pool. That's "more drivers than are insured in all other states' high-risk pools combined," according to an IFNC news release.  Other statistics cited by IFNC indicate that North Carolina drivers account for more than 80 percent of the drivers in the country who are assigned to high-risk pools. "We don't think 80 percent of the nation's bad drivers are North Carolinians."

Reduced premiums for all North Carolina motorists would come from what IFNC calls the elimination of a "hidden" surcharge paid by all insured drivers to cover the annual shortfall attributed to drivers in the Reinsurance Facility who are known as clean risks. The surcharge averages 5 to 7 percent of a driver's premium and has ranged as high as 10 percent, according IFNC.

The measure is also backed by North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin who has called for a reduction in the size of the Reinsurance Facility in a measured way.