WASHINGTON BUREAU — A consumer group representative and a law professor today told a Senate panel that they think the federal government should help regulate the insurance industry.
The witnesses appeared before the Senate Banking Committee for a hearing on the state of regulation of insurance, securities and banking.
Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., chairman of the committee, acknowledged during his opening statement that deciding what to do about insurance regulation is complicated.
“Some have called for federal regulation of insurance, while others strongly defend the current system of state regulation,” Dodd said.
There is a “solid case to be made that state-based regulation of insurance has worked well for more than a century,” Dodd said. “There is also a case to be made that it’s time for a change…. And, even though the insurance industry did not create the economic crisis, like almost every other industry it has been hit hard, and as a result many are calling on us to modernize regulations and reflect the 21st century in which the insurance industry exists.”
Travis Plunkett, legislative director, of the Consumer Federation of America, Washington, testified that the CFA is in the midst of reevaluating its policies regarding insurance regulation, but that the CFA believes that the “federal government should be the solvency/prudential risk regulator for all insurers.”
This federal oversight office would also be a mechanism to monitor any systemic risk. “It is difficult to understand how a systemic regulator could function properly without the sort of understanding gained from total solvency/prudential analysis,” Plunkett said.
But the states should remain in charge of dealing directly with insurance consumers, Plunkett said.
“States handle almost a half million complaints and an additional 3 million requests for information,” he said. “Several states average more insurance inquiries and complaints than the entire federal banking system does.”