...And OFC Legislation Was Unveiled

Unlike legislation introduced in 2006 in the Senate, the 2007 bill removes any reference to health insurance, but allows federally-licensed insurance producers to sell health insurance offered by state health insurers.

The bill, like its Senate counterpart, specifically directs the insurance commissioner to establish regulations barring unfair trade and claims practices.

It also states that national insurers, as a general rule, must belong to the state guaranty association in each state in which they offer insurance. The bill also says that if a state guaranty association does not provide policyholders with a level of protection equivalent to National Association of Insurance Commissioners model standards, a national insurer would be required to join the National Insurance Guaranty Corporation created under the law. This corporation would have separate accounts for property-casualty insurance and life insurance and, similar to state guaranty funds, would be post-funded with assessments of its member companies.

Other supporters of the bill include Agents for Change, the American Bankers Association, the American Bankers Insurance Association, the American Insurance Association, the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers, the Financial Services Forum, the Financial Services Roundtable, the Life Insurers Council, the National Association of Independent Life Brokerage Agencies, and the Reinsurance Association of America.

In a statement, Frank Keating, president and CEO of the ACLI, said the bill “would modernize our nation’s insurance regulatory system” and would allow insurance companies and producers to choose whether to remain subject to the current state-by-state regulatory system, or instead, opt for a new, streamlined national system.

“Insurance companies and agents choosing the national system would come under a uniform and consistent set of laws and regulations,” Keating said.

“ACLI supports language in the bill assuring that nationally-regulated insurers offer the best consumer protections in the nation,” he added. “The legislation should take a ‘best practices’ approach, combining well-tested ideas from around the nation into a single coordinated and efficient system.”