The Indiana General Assembly begins the second half of its 2006 session considering important insurance bills, according to the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies.
“Key bills correcting an error in the state’s farm mutual tax code, modernizing the commercial rate statute, fixing an workers compensation court decision, and simplifying the salvage title process are now headed to their respective second legislative chambers for action, said Tami Stanton, NAMIC’s central region state affairs manager. “NAMIC has taken an active role in testifying on all these critical measures.”
NAMIC and the Mutual Insurance Companies Association of Indiana ) are working to address a mistake in Indiana’s 2002 tax code revision that erroneously raised taxes paid by farm mutual insurers from 1.2 percent to 8.5 percent. House Bill 1391 originally contained the legislative fix, but the language was amended into HB 1266 to facilitate the bill’s passage in the House. House Bill 1266 passed the House of Representatives 90-7, on Feb. 2.
Before the legislature adjourns in mid-March, further successful action is anticipated on commercial deregulation (SB 162); workers compensation reform (HB 1307); and salvage titles (SB 339 and HB 1056), Stanton said.
Additional active measures of interest to insurers include security breach disclosure and identity deception (HB 1101); immunity from obesity lawsuits for the food and beverage industries (HB 1113); and three bills allowing for pooling (SB 229-independent colleges, and SB 323 and HB 1006-public schools).
“On the security breach bill, NAMIC worked with the bill’s author last summer to insert exclusions for property/casualty insurers and to assure the bill’s measures mirrored reasonable legislation passed in other states,” explained Stanton. “The business community is leading the way on consumption liability legislation. For the pooling bills, NAMIC and the Insurance Institute of Indiana were successful in increasing the regulatory oversight by placing such pools under the standards utilized for Multiple Employer Welfare Associations and statutory accounting standards.”
Founded in 1895, NAMIC is a full-service national trade association with more than 1,400 member companies that underwrite 43 percent $196 billion of the property/casualty insurance premium in the United States.
Topics Legislation
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