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NAMIC 2007 Survey of New State Insurance Law Enactments

This edition of the NAMIC Annual Survey of New State Insurance Law Enactments reports on 1,270 property/casualty related laws which were enacted in the 50 states and the District of Columbia during 2007. This compares with 539 similar laws passed in 2006.

The following lists the states and the number of property/casualty related laws enacted in each state.

Alabama (2), Alaska (8), Arizona (28), Arkansas (28), California (43), Colorado (28), Connecticut (22), Delaware (15), District of Columbia (2), Florida (33), Georgia (15), Hawaii (24), Idaho (19), Illinois (22), Indiana (10), Iowa (9), Kansas (24), Kentucky (9), Louisiana (52), Maine (57), Maryland (31), Massachusetts (1), Michigan (9), Minnesota (9), Mississippi (23), Missouri (5), Montana (29), Nebraska (21), Nevada (45), New Hampshire (20), New Jersey (37), New Mexico (22), New York (26), North Carolina (46), North Dakota (46), Ohio (4), Oklahoma (20), Oregon (43), Pennsylvania (4), Rhode Island (41), South Carolina (8), South Dakota (17), Tennessee (41), Texas (99), Utah (22), Vermont (8), Virginia (38), Washington (41), West Virginia (20), Wisconsin (2) and Wyoming (12).

As usual, nearly forty-six percent of all bills were related to automobile insurance issues. This compares with 169 bills in 2006. The largest sub-category involved traffic offenses, with lawmakers in 36 states enacting 137 bills of this type. Many of these laws dealt with tougher penalties for motorists who drive under the influence of alcohol.

Thirty-nine states enacted 170 workers’ compensation bills in 2007 as compared with 82 bills in 2006.

The number of catastrophe-related laws doubled in 2007 to 34 bills. Louisiana lawmakers passed nearly half of the bills, the most notable being House Bill 678. It established the Insure Louisiana Incentive Program, which will appropriate up to $100 million to encourage new and existing insurers to conduct business in the state. Another catastrophe bill of note was House Bill 1500 in Mississippi which made numerous revisions to that state’s wind pool.

Direct questions about this annual survey to David Reddick, director of public policy research at dreddick@namic.org.