U.S. legislators top concerns in 2002 are auto and worker’s comp

Auto insurance and workers’ compensation emerged as the top issues for states when it came to insurance legislation last year. This comes from a survey by the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC).P&c insurers faced 239 new laws last year in 44 states. Sixty of these were aimed at auto insurance, while 45 new worker’s comp laws came into being.”Together, these two categories account for nearly half of the new property & casualty laws covered in this report,” says Roger Schmelzer, vice president of regulatory affairs for NAMIC. “Some other very distinct issue trends in the survey include new laws pertaining to licensure, insurance scoring, financial regulations and rate and form regulation.”Of these, 18 laws were aimed at licensure, 12 at scoring and 10 at investment tax credits.Among the states passing new insurance laws, California tops the list at 15, with Florida second at 12, followed by Arizona and Colorado at 11.The report also notes that insurers were affected by a number of laws aimed not specifically at insurance legislation, but including building codes, captives, e-commerce, fraud, mold, privacy, taxation, marketing and trade practices and others.