SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS–Consumer advocates rating the work of theNational Association of Insurance Commissioners during its wintermeeting here announced that most of the efforts got passinggrades.

The consumer representatives listed report card results forissues ranging from health and long-term care to marketanalysis.

All of the group are “funded consumer representatives” who aregiven a stipend to attend NAIC meetings.

On property-casualty issues, funded representative BirnyBirnbaum said the NAIC delivered a “good performance” oncatastrophe insurance issues, but noted the inconsistency of tryingto fend off federal regulation and yet look to federal programssuch as the federal flood program for support.

And, on the market regulation segment, Mr. Birnbaum urged thatthe NAIC expand its market analysis because the NAIC has “arguedthat in order to fend off federal regulation, state regulators haveto be closer to the market 'pulse.' Market regulation gives you anadvantage.”

He noted that there were 19 data elements for market conductanalysis and 240 data elements for financial statement analysis. Healso expressed disappointment in the market conduct model and addedthat the market regulation area was the smallest part of the NAICbudget.

However, Mr. Birnbaum did say he believed “you do have consumersin your interest at all times. I have never failed to believe thatyou are trying to protect consumers.”

Susan Voss, Iowa insurance commissioner and chair of the MarketRegulation and Consumer Affairs “D” Committee, said that strongfinancial solvency protections for companies were ultimately strongconsumer protections as well.

Mr. Birnbaum said the efforts of the NAIC for life insurance andannuities, excluding the Compact which he described as a separateentity, were “very good.”

He assigned a “very good” grade to work on the Viatical modelmeasure that would curb the sale of insurance that is strictly forsettlement, although he said he did not agree with all thespecifics in the proposal.

He assigned a “very good” to the principles-based reservingproject for “trying to ensure that term life is made available andaffordable to consumers.”

On the issue of the Interstate Insurance Product RegulationCommission, Mr. Birnbaum said he was “greatly disappointed” becauseof issues such as public accountability and public access.

Mila Kofman, another funded consumer representative, gave theNAIC's Unauthorized Transaction of Insurance Criminal model act a“B-plus” and described it as a “strong step” in reining in agentsfor selling insurance of unauthorized insurers including healthinsurance programs.

Ms. Kofman gave the NAIC an “A” for its response to the HealthCare Choice Act but an “F” for its response to S.B. 1955, a smallemployers' health insurance bill–also known as the Enzi bill forU.S. Senator Mike Enzi, R-Wyo. She said that for the 20-pluscommissioners, including Washington Insurance Commissioner MikeKreidler, who actively opposed the bill, their grade was an“A.”

Funded consumer rep Karrol Kitt lauded the NAIC for programsincluding Insure U, an effort to educate consumers about insurance,and noted that the NAIC has an opportunity to build on that worksince a General Accounting Office report indicates that of 20federal agencies that promote financial literacy and education,none offers education focusing on insurance.

A grade of “incomplete” was proposed for NAIC efforts onconsumer disclosures by funded representative Brenda Cude, whocited “truly groundbreaking efforts” but said that more work needsto be done. The “incomplete”, according to Ms. Cude, will become an“F” if no further advancement is made by the end of 2007.

Bonnie Burns, a funded consumer rep who retired from herposition at this meeting, noted disappointment with the level ofagent training in the revised Long-Term Care model act andregulation, noting the fact that there are only eight hours ofinitial training and four hours of training every two years, andalso that the LTC Partnership training is not broken out from LTCItraining.