My computer “ate my homework”! Actually, it garbled the post I had for this morning; but, here’s a news flash to give you something to think about while I finish rewriting:
State Farm Insurance has filed a lawsuit against the Texas Department of Insurance after the state agency took the unprecedented move of publicizing on its Web site recent rate hikes by the company.
Texas’ largest insurer filed suit Tuesday, seeking to protect from disclosure certain information that State Farm said could benefit its rivals in the insurance industry.
Department spokesman Jerry Hagins says the agency’s position is that all documents associated with a rate filing are public information. Posted were two State Farm rate proposals filed over the last eight months that increase homeowner premiums an average of 13 percent.
Hagins tells The Dallas Morning News that the decision to post was partly the result of increases filed so close together.
Another news brief on the suit reported, “State Farm spokesman Kevin Davis said information posted online by the Texas State Department of Insurance ‘contains information about reinsurance’ that would benefit rival companies…”
SLABBED readers will recall that State Farm is self-reinsured and Texas is not the first State to question those costs. In fact, the Company’s assessment of reinsurance was the chief cause of the controversial rate increase in Florida and a concern expressed when State Farm more recently filed for rate increases in Mississippi and Louisiana. However the Company is no stranger in Texas courts. Here’s a bit of background on the story behind the story published after the first of the two rate increases at issue: Continue reading “State Farm decides to “mess with Texas” – sues insurance department!”