West Virginia: Legislature Adjourns; Defensive Session for Insurance Industry

West Virginia ended its regular session March 10 at midnight, but lawmakers continue to meet in a special extended session for consideration of the budget bill and other fiscal matters.

NAMIC's lobbying partner, the West Virginia Insurance Federation, reports that this has been primarily a defensive session. A number of bills were introduced that would have been detrimental to the insurance industry. Fortunately, those bills are now dead. They included language on the following issues:

Insurance scoring
Deregulation of towing and wrecker services
Mandatory insurance rate rollbacks
Expanded role of insurance consumer advocate
Asbestos/Silica reform; require doctor-patient relationship; require evidence of medical impairment
Child support enforcement lien program

Some issues the federation supported that also are now dead include bills relating to:

Asbestos/silica reform (although there is a study resolution requesting the Legislature to study this issue in 2007)
State attorney general disclosure "sunshine" bills
Non-partisan election of circuit court judges and supreme court justices

Direct questions to NAMIC State Affairs Manager Liz Reynolds.

Posted: Tuesday, March 13, 2007 12:00:00 AM.

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We are 1,400 property/casualty insurance companies serving more than 135 million auto, home and business policyholders, with more than $196 billion in premiums accounting for 50 percent of the automobile/homeowners market and 31 percent of the business insurance market. We are the largest and most diverse property/casualty trade association in the country, with regional and local mutual insurance companies on main streets across America joining many of the country’s largest national insurers who also call NAMIC their home. More than 200,000 people are employed by NAMIC members.