NAIC Hears Call For ZIP-Coded Info
By E.E. Mazier
NU Online News Service, March 19, 9:27 a.m. EST, Reno, Nev.?Consumer advocates at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners meeting here called on the organization to ensure public access to company-specific ZIP-code data on property-casualty insurance carriers.
Birny Birnbaum, consulting economist for the Center for Economic Justice, a Texas-based advocacy group, said that public disclosure of premium and exposure data by ZIP code and by insurer "is as high a priority as exists" for the consumer advocates who have worked on the property-casualty issues at the NAIC.
Mr. Birnbaum made the remarks at the meeting of the NAIC/Consumer Liaison Committee, on which he sits.
"It's vital for communities and consumer groups to monitor what insurers are doing" to determine "whether the markets are operating in their communities," he said.
He added that it is "critical" that the public "participate and assist regulators in identifying market failures."
Mr. Birnbaum expressed exasperation at the apparent stalling of the issue in the Property & Casualty Insurance "C" Committee due to an apparent lack of consensus.
"Despite two years of discussion about this, we have yet to be able to hear what reasons there are to not adopt this," he stated.
He indicated that the proposal before the "C" group would involve amending the existing p-c model law's section which relates to statistical and rate administration.
However, NAIC President Terri Vaughan, who is Insurance Commissioner of Iowa and a member of the Liaison Committee, expressed the belief that the "C" Committee was heading toward a conclusion on the issue, possibly by voting on it at the Reno meeting.
"They have not just been sitting on this issue," Ms. Vaughan stated. "It has been discussed in the context of a general revision of the model."
Another consumer representative, Andrea Caliz Luquetta, Director of Housing and Community Investment for the Boston-based Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations, indirectly suggested possible industry objections to the disclosure of the ZIP-coded data.
She cited experiences in her home state, where "the top 25″ insurers already report homeowners' premium and exposure data by ZIP code to the insurance department.
According to Ms. Luquetta, the two objections raised by the insurance industry were that the ZIP-coded data is proprietary information and that disclosing it publicly would lead to competitive disadvantage.
But Ms. Luquetta reported that in fact there had been no such problems in Massachusetts.
She also indicated that the data showed that 61 percent of the top companies were writing policies in so-called underserved communities in 1999.
"Having the data available has been nothing but a benefit and has not caused any company to experience any losses," she declared.
Similarly, Liaison Committee member Nathaniel S. Shapo, who is director of the Illinois insurance department and NAIC Secretary-Treasurer, reported that the fact that such disclosures are routine in his state had not led to "a breakdown in the markets."
Ms. Luquetta added that the consumer representatives would like to see the disclosure of ZIP-coded data expanded to the areas of small business and multi-family residential properties.
Committee chair Scott B. Lakin, director of the Missouri insurance department, indicated that the regulatory members of the Liaison Committee had decided to look into ways of expanding consumer representation on the committee.
He indicated that one way to do this is through a greater mix of NAIC-funded and unfunded consumer advocates.
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