New State Decisions Equal More Than Half of P/C Enacted Laws for 2001
New state laws concerning workers’ compensation, automobile insurance, financial and other regulatory requirements account for over half of the property/casualty-related insurance laws enacted by state legislatures this year, according to an annual survey of new state insurance laws released by the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC).
“NAMIC has placed online 389 new property/casualty-related laws enacted this year in 43 states where the 2001 legislative session has ended,” said Roger Schmelzer, vice president-regulatory affairs.
Some very distinct issue trends emerge from among the many new state insurance laws enacted this year.
“Just over half (197) of the new laws impact workers’ comp, auto, financial and other regulatory requirements,” Schmelzer added. “Workers’ compensation law changes alone account for 83 of these and include changes to benefit calculations, record-keeping and reporting requirements, the appeals process and a variety of other substantive and technical modifications.”
NAMIC’s survey identifies a number of other important patterns of new laws and law changes this year as well–including changes to the role of the state regulator, rules to protect and govern the transfer of structured settlements, a variety of laws related to surplus lines brokers, telephone sales solicitations and uniform commercial code changes related to secured transactions.
This is the third consecutive year NAMIC has released a year-end analysis of new state insurance law trends.