Gee, who could ever have ever predicted this? This illustrates exactly why a mandate for health insurance won't work:

Insurance regulators and safety activists are alarmed at what they describe as a stunning rise in the number of drivers who are cutting back or even dropping their auto insurance to save money during the recession.

“It’s been a shock,” said Chris Pringle, owner of All American Insurance Agency in Little Rock, Ark., who said up to 20 percent of his clients had dropped their policies or missed payments in recent months. “I thought we were somewhat in a recession-proof business, because (auto insurance is) required for everyone to have.”

Karl Newman, president of the Northwest Insurance Council, a trade association based in Seattle, warned that “we may be looking at record numbers of uninsured motorists across the nation.”

“When you see a multi-car collision on the freeway ... if there’s more than three or four cars there, at least one of them is likely to be uninsured,” Newman said.