Insurance Transparency Project

Insureds,Florida’s legislature passed its torchlight-and-pitchfork insurance reform package, which the industry believes will kill the market but will roll back rates as much as 40%. Republican Governor “Chain Gang” Charlie Crist provided the difference.
“They said it couldn’t be done, and yet it is,” he told the Sarasota Herald Tribune.

“I think we did lose,” said William Stander, a lobbyist for the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America.

Bob Hunter(1) says so much of the Florida wind market is in public hands, the state should go all the way and socialize it (first document, page 27), though he might not put it that way. ITP War Eagle is studying the idea, though obviously it makes more sense than the state taking all the bad risks.

Now we learn that Moss Point’s favorite son, George Dale (2), is running for an unprecedented eighth term.

“I think the job needs to be held by someone who can see the big picture,” Dale said.

We tease Commissioner Dale, but have great respect for his public spiritedness. However, put it this way, such is the need for new ideas in Mississippi, War Eagle is now online studying state election law to consider his own bid.

There’s more on the site.

But just a quick word about the even-worse struggles in Louisiana, where the federal delegation is not as active as Mississippi’s.

First, a story in the Pulitzer-winning-Times-Picayune about Ray Nagin’s idea to float loans to people waiting for checks from the
Louisiana Recovery Authority’s Road Home program. So, they’re needing government loans to tide people over until payment of a government grant meant to pay what insurers didn’t cover and/or pay. Let’s put that one in the “incremental solutions” pile.

And next a story about a hearings starting today by a task force headed by Sen. Julie Quinn, R-Metairie, a lawyer who once did insurance defense work now leading industry reform efforts in the State House. ITP wishes it were there. The ideas in the story range from abolishing a state rating panel, raising deductibles and suspending a law that requires that state-owned Louisiana Citizens to charge 10% more than the market. But that’s why we have hearings. To come up with new ideas.

(1) Head of Consumer Federation’s insurance section, federal insurance administrator under Presidents Carter and Ford, former Texas insurance commissioner, Fellow, Casualty Actuarial Society.
(2) Mississippi insurance commissioner, took first oath of office aboard C.S.S. Merrimack.

Bonus material for web visitors:

When I started this blog, I wondered if there was something interesting about insurance to write about every day. There is.

The WSJ has three stories worth reading if you’re a subscriber:

“State Farm Legal Woes Hit Gale Force”

“States Seek to Reign In Home Insurers”

“Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc.: Insurance-Brokerage Unit Is Awarded License in China”

And USA Today has arrived in force.