Sun Herald reporter Michael Newsom reported the current current status of insurance legislation pending at the Capitol in House OK’s Compromise:
House Bill 563 passed in a 107-7 vote Wednesday, which included all South Mississippi representatives voting for it. The measure is the lone surviving piece of Hurricane Katrina insurance legislation. Several other insurance bills, which Coast lawmakers file annually, died with a Feb. 2 deadline to clear committee. Coast lawmakers have said the insurance industry carries much influence over the Legislature, which has contributed to the bills failing in the years since Hurricane Katrina.
However, House Bill 563, the subject of Sop’s recent post Watered down policyholder legislation still hanging on in the Mississippi Legislature, passed the House with language Sop claimed would give insurers “free rein” still in the bill:
In addition to the rights that are specified by the commissioner and the provision regarding reasonable time frames, the Mississippi Homeowners Insurance Policyholder Bill of Rights must include the following provisions: (a) Unless based on sound actuarial principles, an insurance company may not treat a policyholder differently from other individuals of the same class and essentially the same hazard when evaluating a claim…(emphasis added)
Keep in mind that Sop is a CPA who knows “adjusting claims has nothing to do with “actuarial principles” and his related opinion is as worthy of consideration as that of those in other professions commenting on proposed insurance legislation:
Taken at its face that language essentially gives an insurer free rein to do whatever the heck they want provided they pay a shill like Robert Hartwig enough to concoct some whopper actuarial principle to justify why it is OK for an insurer to hose a policyholder on a claim.
Sop spoke for SLABBED when he pointed out the red flag language in House Bill 563 and I saw no need to add more until I read this paragraph in Merlin’s related post this morning:
I am certain many may think these efforts are a waste of time because the insurance lobby in Mississippi seems to be in control of the political process. Standing up for the right principle and social policy is always the right thing to do. Like water in a stream relentlessly influencing the earth, just social policy reflected in law will eventually happen. But this will occur only so long as we stand up to those with more significant wealth or power that are attempting to keep the unjust status quo in place.
It is not the strength of the insurance lobby that concerns me. Instead, my consideration is framing insurance legislation as a matter of “social policy” when the “unjust status quo in place” is a matter of “public policy”. The distinction is important. Continue reading “Merlin – Amy Bach and United Policyholders Supports Mississippi Insurance Protections”