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December 18, 2003 at 07:00 PM
NAIC Scrambling To Make Sure All Roads Dont Lead To D.C.
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The task at hand throughout 2004 will be to develop a roadmap to make sure all insurance regulatory roads dont lead to Washington, state insurance regulators contend.
The immediacy of creating paths to maintain state insurance regulation is being driven by what commissioners say is the likelihood of a bill in Congress advocating some form of federal oversight.
Following his election to the post of National Association of Insurance Commissioners President, Ernst Csiszar, South Carolina Director, assessed the situation.
“The urgency is immediate,” says Csiszar, and to wait until the original 2008 timetable in the NAICs Statement of Intent is not realistic. “The market moves too fast. The message is to get going,” he says.
For instance, in 2004, establishing standards for an interstate compact for life insurance products that the NAIC intends to have enacted in states will need to be a priority, Csiszar says.
The compact is a way to achieve uniformity, he says. Uniformity is one of the goals considered necessary to streamline state regulation.
The compact has the support of the National Conference of Insurance Legislators, Albany, N.Y., and the National Conference of State Legislatures, Denver.
Another point that will be examined, says Csiszar, is whether there needs to be a reworking of capital adequacy requirements due to global changes and standards. In fact, he confirmed that a restructuring of the work and procedures for groups like NAICs Life & Health Actuarial and Technical Task Force is possible. The groups charges may be changed to reflect the capital adequacy issue and decisions on its work made more directly by commissioners, he says.
On the issue of the new Medicare prescription drug law, Csiszar says NAIC can draft rules to help the new law be implemented smoothly.
“The process needs to move faster,” Jim Poolman, the new NAIC vice president and North Dakota insurance commissioner, concurs.
Work on compact standards is needed as well as efforts to get states to introduce the compact because its advancement “is only as good as the legislative authority given to us,” he says.
