Advocates for insurance reform disagree about need for special session - Everything Alabama Blog
MONTGOMERY, Alabama -- The nearly completed 2012 regular session will likely become one of the most successful sessions ever for insurance overhaul legislation, once Republican Gov. Robert Bentley pens his signature on the handful of insurance bills that the Legislature passed last week.
With four such proposals sponsored by south Alabama lawmakers on the governor's desk and a fifth on the verge of final passage in the Senate, do we still need the special session dedicated to insurance that Bentley pledged some two years ago?
Two of the top insurance overhaul advocates in the Legislature disagree.
"With these measures passing, we've done just about everything anybody suggested that didn't require a large sum of money," Rep. Steven McMillan, R-Gulf Shores, said last week. Asked whether a special session was still needed, he said: "I don't think so, now that we've got these."
Sen. Ben Brooks, R-Mobile, expressed a very different view, saying lawmakers shouldn't "let the pressure off."
"There are still a lot of things out there that we need to look at doing, in terms of legislation," Brooks said. "I continue to believe that the best way to do that in a comprehensive manner is through a special session."
Among the issues Brooks said lawmakers still need to address are further increasing transparency of insurance coverage, restructuring the state's coastal insurer of last resort and deciding how to apply expected oil spill fine money to the insurance problem.
"We had a good bit of progress in this regular session, but the movement for insurance reform is far from over," Brooks said.
Property insurance in south Alabama grew increasingly expensive and difficult to obtain after the Gulf Coast was hit by Hurricanes Ivan and Katrina in 2004 and 2005.
As homeowners saw their premiums and deductibles increase, or their insurers drop coverage altogether, south Alabama lawmakers sought to address the problem by changing state insurance law.
But progress was generally slow. With skeptical upstate lawmakers and a powerful insurance lobby, many years saw the passage of only one or two insurance overhaul proposals.
That changed last week.
Four bills passed the Legislature, and the governor's office has said Bentley is expected to sign them. They are:
- Senate Bill 210, the Property Insurance Clarity Act, which would mandate that insurers provide the state Department of Insurance with data on the number of policies they write, the premiums they charge and the amount of money they lose in claims. The department would aggregate the information and publish it online in a public database, searchable by ZIP code.
- Senate Bill 227, which would let homeowners create "catastrophe savings accounts," with tax benefits similar to retirement accounts that could be used to help pay for insurance deductibles or uninsured damage after storms.
- Senate Bill 230, which would give tax breaks to insurance companies that write policies in parts of south Alabama.
- House Bill 323, which would establish insurance fraud as a felony crime, whether committed by consumers or companies.
Additionally, lawmakers are optimistic about the chances for House Bill 166, which could land on the governor's desk if the Senate approves it Wednesday, the last day of the regular session.
That bill would require insurers to provide their customers with an annual checklist showing what their policies do and do not cover.
Brooks noted that these were hard-won gains. A dispute with State House heavyweight Alfa Mutual Group derailed three of the bills in the Senate weeks ago, Brooks said. South Alabama lawmakers were only able to move the proposals after playing legislative hardball: blocking bills sponsored by the senators who had stopped the insurance proposals.
A special session on insurance would focus attention on the topic and could help bills pass more easily, according to Brooks.
Though less committed to the need for a special session, McMillan said he thinks additional work needs to be done to improve insurance availability and affordability. Enforcing a statewide building code remains a key goal, he said.
The governor's office did not directly respond to questions about the need for a special session, but Bentley issued a written statement praising progress made in the 2012 regular session.
"My goal is to make sure affordable insurance options are available to the people of this state, and we have a good foundation with these bills to do that," Bentley's statement said. "There is still a long way to go, but we have taken a giant step forward in making insurance affordable for those who live along the Alabama Gulf Coast."
14 May, 2012
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Source: http://blog.al.com/live/2012/05/is_an_insurance_special_sessio.html
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