Regulator: Use It And Lose It? Not In Kansas, Toto

By Michael Ha

NU Online News Service, Jan. 8, 11:40 a.m. EST?Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger announced this week that she will seek legislation prohibiting insurers from canceling a homeowner's policy after a single catastrophic claim.[@@]

Ms. Praeger's action was announced as part of her new year's legislative agenda, which seeks to offer better protections to homeowners policyholders. The package is expected to get a favorable reception from the Republican-controlled legislature where Ms. Praeger, herself a member of the GOP, served in both houses before winning election as commissioner.

In explaining her proposal to regulate cancellations, Ms. Praeger said, "Kansans who buy insurance should not have to worry about having their coverage dropped if they are unlucky enough to be hit by a tornado or hail. That's precisely the reason we buy insurance."

A second piece of legislation she is advancing, Ms. Praeger said, would seek to protect consumers from being charged higher premiums for simply making an inquiry about their coverage.

Currently, some insurers mandate that when consumers call their agents with a question, that inquiry then be placed as a claim in property claims databases, such as the Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange (C.L.U.E.) system. "Consumers should not be punished when they don't file a claim or even have damage," she commented. "We should be able to ask straightforward questions about our coverage or deductible without being penalized."

Ms. Praeger added, "We look forward to working with the legislature to implement these proposals into Kansas law."

Insurance department spokesman Scott Holeman said Ms. Praeger's proposals would be introduced in the upcoming 90-day legislative session which starts Jan. 12. If approved, they could be enacted this coming July, he estimated.

"The commissioner, having been a former state senator and a representative, has a good working relationship with the legislature, so we are confident in her ability to work with state lawmakers to make good policies for Kansans," Mr. Holeman said.

He also observed that the Kansas Legislature currently has a Republican majority by a significant margin. "The state Senate has 30 Republic senators and 10 Democratic senators. In the state House, the Republicans have a two-third majority."

Mr. Holeman said the legislative initiatives came about in Kansas because the state has a strong consumer division and that these two proposals are based on input from consumers and agents.

He said tornado damages Kansans suffered last year helped bring these issues to the forefront. "We had a lot of tornadoes in 2003, and so we knew of people whose policies have been cancelled from a single catastrophic claim. And the whole C.L.U.E. report--that has been something that we started to hear a lot more about this past year."

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Regulator: Use It And Lose It? Not In Kansas, Toto

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