Wall Street Journal reports on election of new insurance commissioners in California, Georgia and Oklahoma:
This Wednesday, November 3, article (subscription required) also talks about the re-election of Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger, and how the federal health care reform law was a campaign issue in many state insurance commissioner races.
Republican victories on Election Day will shake-up the composition of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee:
About one-quarter of the 42 House Members on this committee lost their bids for re-election, including Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pennsylvania), who is chair of the subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance and Government-Sponsored Enterprises. Rep. Barney Frank was re-elected on Tuesday, November 2, but will hand the committee chair’s gavel to a Republican House Member when the next Congress convenes in January.
Mississippi and Florida federal lawmakers who focused on insurance issues won’t be returning to D.C. next year:
Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Mississippi) and Rep. Ron Klein (D-Florida) sponsored legislation which would have allowed the National Flood Insurance Program to sell wind policies and expanded dramatically the federal government’s role in the private reinsurance market, respectively. Both lawmakers were unsuccessful this year as they sought another two-year term.
State of Washington’s voters reject Initiative 1082; measure would have opened workers’ compensation market to private carriers:
The Associated Press reported on Tuesday evening, November 2, that the measure was defeated by 16 percentage points (58-42%). The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board (subscription required) offered this case for I-1082’s passage on Saturday, October 23.
Connecticut’s Insurance Commissioner to leave that office effective Friday, November 12:
Commissioner Thomas Sullivan said he will take a position at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Sullivan, who worked previously in property/casualty insurance at Hartford Financial Services Group, was appointed as the state’s insurance commissioner in 2007. He has recently been criticized for approving increases of more than 30 percent for health coverage. Yet Commission Sullivan stood behind his department’s approval of rate requests from Aetna and Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Connecticut, and there is no evidence that criticism from consumer advocates and elected officials led to his resignation, according to this Tuesday, November 2, Hartford Courant article.
Consumer Federation of America’s (CFA) Financial Services Conference to examine auto insurer use of data on credit scores, occupation and education:
The Wall Street Journal offered in this Monday, November 1, article (subscription required) a preview of the CFA’s gathering, indicating auto insurers’ rating criteria would be one of the topics discussed at the CFA’s conference, to be held in Washington, D.C.I.I.I., Reinsurance Association of America (RAA) respond to misleading series on reinsurers’ role in Florida’s property insurance market:
I.I.I. president Robert Hartwig responded with this letter, and RAA president Frank Nutter had this piece published after the Sarasota Herald Tribune’s two-part look at the reinsurance business appeared. It was published in the Gainesville Sun, Ocala Star Banner and Lakeland Ledge, too. All four newspapers are owned by the New York Times Company. ‘Property insurers sending billions overseas’ was the headline on the first article, and the second story appeared under the banner, ‘How Bermuda rigs insurance rates in Florida.’ The Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers also took issue with many of the points made in Paige St. John’s articles.
I.I.I. release on divorce and insurance catches Jean Chatzky’s eye; column on marriage and long-term care (LTC) insurance is in the works:
Arielle McGowen (email: arielle@jeanchatzky.com), who works for syndicated columnist and NBC Today Show correspondent Jean Chatzky, called the I.I.I. for more information on LTC policies, and that appears to be the focus of an article Chatzky is developing. The I.I.I.’s Thursday, October 14, release on this topic is here.
National Public Radio (NPR) may look at property insurance/climate change links during coverage of upcoming United Nations (UN) Conference:
Scott Tong, a Washington, D.C.-based producer for NPR’s Marketplace program, told the I.I.I. that NPR is debating to what extent they should focus on the possibility climate change is impacting commercial property insurance prices in coastal and wildfire-prone U.S. states. Tong (Phone: 202-263-0212, email: stong@marketplace.org) said NPR is pursuing various storylines in advance of the UN’s Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico, to be held between November 29-December 10, 2010.
A.M. Best prepping major story on auto insurers’ use of Colossus software in assessing bodily injury claims:
Reporter Diana Rosenberg interviewed the I.I.I.’s Hartwig for her story, which was prompted by this Monday, October 18, New York State Insurance Department news release. Rosenberg indicated the final article could appear in both Best’s Week and Best’s Review.
Miami Herald reports that Univision was the top-ranked TV network in the U.S. in September’s first week:
“When Nielsen Media Research sent out its weekly television ratings report for the first week in September, TV programmers and marketing directors across America blinked, rubbed their eyes, then blinked again. Could it really be? Spanish-language Univisión finishing first? Not first in the Spanish rankings, not first in Miami or Los Angeles: First in the whole United States, ahead of Fox, CBS, ABC and NBC,” stated the first paragraph of this Monday, October 18, Miami Herald article.
Bankrate.com says it will broaden its insurance coverage:
Kevin Lyons, a new reporter for the website, said that bankrate.com’s decision was prompted by its recent purchase of creditcards.com. Lyons (Kevin.Lyons@creditcards.com) is working on a piece concerning how staged automobile accidents drive up the cost of insurance for the typical driver.New York City’s Great Fire (1835) and its insurance repercussions are at center of upcoming Oxford University Press book:
People magazine writer Dan Levy (email: danlevy@aol.com) is writing a book on New York City (1825-1860) and is looking for additional historical information on the Great Fire of New York, which occurred in December 1835. The blaze destroyed close to 700 buildings and most of the city’s insurance companies went out of business because of the payouts they had to make, Levy said. Former New York City Mayor Phil Hone apparently started a number of city-based insurance companies, post-1835, and prospered as a result, an issue Levy is also going to explore.
