Three national insurance company trade organizations said the 2007 Indiana legislative session ended on a positive note regarding key issues facing the insurance industry.
According to the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC), one critical success story could be found in the passage of a bill that deregulates commercial forms.
Tami Stanton, NAMIC’s central region state affairs manager, said that the state continued its successful efforts to modernize its regulatory market by deregulating commercial forms with language contained in the omnibus insurance bill, HB 1452.
Greg LaCost, assistant vice president and regional manager for Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI), also praised Indiana’s deregulation efforts this year.
“Indiana continues to take important steps forward in creating a positive environment for insurance and the cornerstone of that effort is a good regulatory system. In past years Indiana made important regulatory improvements for commercial lines rates and we made progress this year in area of forms filing. In the coming years we would like to see lawmakers seriously consider carrying these marketplace improvements over to personal lines,” PCI’s LaCost said.
Another measure that passed addressed seat belt enforcement issues, according to the American Insurance Association (AIA). House Bill 1237 amends the state’s seat belt law to now require, with a few exceptions, all passengers in a car, truck or SUV to wear a seat belt. Indiana is a primary enforcement state and first enacted a seat-belt law in 1987.
Another bill addressing fees for accident reporting also passed.
House Bill 1274 addresses the unfair practice of dunning insured auto accident victims for hundreds of dollars for services already covered by taxes. This issue has appeared sporadically in Indiana and neighboring states. Indiana is the first state to pass a ban on the practice.
“While at times it was a challenging session, key issues of importance to the industry advanced that will help strengthen an already solid insurance market in Indiana,” said John Birkinbine, AIA assistant vice president, Midwest Region.
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Topics Legislation
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