Bush Victory Gives P-C Insurers Upper Hand

Bush Victory Gives P-C Insurers Upper Hand Industry sees better chance for medical malpractice, class-action, asbestos reforms

When we ran a story last August showing how the property-casualty insurance industrys legislative agenda might be better served with a victory by President George W. Bush, we were castigated by a number of readers for taking too narrow a view of the race for the White House.

While acknowledging the validity of such tunnel vision in a subsequent editorial, there is no doubt that industry lobbyists are pleased to see pro-tort-reformers remain in power in Washington.

However, whether continued Republican control of the White House and Congress will translate into passage of medical malpractice, class-action and asbestos claims reform is another story. All three issues remain political dynamite, and have been trapped on the Washington legislative merry-go-round for years now. Plus the bitterness between Democrats and Republicans lingering after the election promises to make compromise on any controversial issue difficult to pull off in the filibuster-prone Congress.

Asbestos reform could prove to be particularly problematic, especially since the industry itself is somewhat divided over how to divvy up claims and make sure those who are ill are compensated in a timely manner. The notion of putting together a trust fund financed by insurers remains the central pillar of reform legislation in Congress.

However, at least one huge playerAIG Chairman and CEO Maurice Greenberghas called on Congress and the industry to drop the pricey and divisive trust fund concept and instead push for simpler procedural reforms that will have a more immediate impact. Such a move would require that someone actually demonstrate symptoms of illness before collecting on an asbestos-exposure claim, so that those who are definitely ill now get quicker compensation.

These arent the only insurance-related issues that will be raised in Congress next year, as other stories in this “Top 10″ list will show. So fasten your seat belts, because 2005 promises to be a bumpy ride indeed for the industry on Capitol Hill.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Edition, December 16, 2004. Copyright 2004 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.