The NCOIL and National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) have publicly worked to come together on a number of issues including the promotion of state-based insurance regulation, supporting the interstate Insurance Compact and the National Insurance Producer Registry. Recently, two additional states signed on to join the Insurance Compact, bringing the total to 33.
A scheduled NCOIL-NAIC dialogue slotted for July 11 will update the progress of the Interstate Insurance Product Regulation Commission, efforts in producer licensing and the NAIC's market conduct studies.
"There certainly is a lot to talk about," said NCOIL Executive Director Susan Nolan. She said she thinks a resolution from the NCOIL opposing the NAIC requirement to file market conduct data will be considered although the resolution was not submitted before the NCOIL 30-day deadline rule. "I believe there is enough interest in it" to get the two-thirds vote needed for the resolution to be considered, Nolan said.
Certain to nurture what Nolan called a "healthy tension" between to the two groups is talk of the Insurance Information Act of 2008, also known as HR 5840. NCOIL has called the measure "dangerous" -- a path to a federal regulator. State regulation has made the insurance market stable, the NCOIL has said. The NAIC offered "conditional support" for the bill.
"State authority has to remain key players as regulators of insurers," Nolan said. "This is federal preemptive legislation. There needs to be accountability. We're going to stick firm to that."
On the first day of the meeting, the NCOIL will discuss to ways to implement recommendations in the Insurance Legislators Foundation Board study. The study recommended a series of long-term policy changes ranging from increased legislative oversight of insurance regulation to redirecting fees now going to the NAIC to NCOIL itself (BestWire, Nov. 12, 2007). Nolan said the NCOIL will consider extending the study.
The Property Casualty Insurers Association of America is keeping an eye on a NCOIL resolution in support of the insurance credit scoring in personal insurance to be considered July 11, said Deirdre Manna, vice president at PCI. The association supports the resolution, Manna said.
On the last day of the meeting the NAIC is prepared to report on progress of its task force on reinsurance. Some of the proposals include reducing the collateral requirements of some foreign reinsurers.
Also on the docket is a resolution from the NCOIL Subcommittee on Natural Disaster Legislation that is expected to create "some very dynamic discussion," said Mike Humphreys, NCOIL director of state-federal relations. A state catastrophe fund resolution, sponsored by Florida Senator Steven Geller, includes several amendments to the NCOIL original draft. The resolution states that after a natural disaster in which insured losses exceed the a designated threshold, the federal government would provide states that chose to be in the fund the amount of money necessary to cover insured losses above the threshold.
The meeting will also include documents related to dependent health insurance benefits, transparency in prescription drug care, flood insurance and the use of legal settlements in public policy.