NCOIL President Defends Its Action On Market Data

The president of the National Conference of Insurance Legislators is disputing a claim that consumer advocates did not have proper opportunity to comment on a resolution about collecting market data at NCOIL's recent meeting.

State Rep. Brian Kennedy, D-Hopkinton, R.I., responded to a claim by Birny Birnbaum, executive director of the Center for Economic Justice, Austin, Texas, that there was not adequate input prior to adoption of a resolution advanced by state legislators.

The resolution, adopted NCOIL, Troy, N.Y., calls for the National Association of Insurance Commissioners to slow down a project to create market conduct annual statements and a centralized database.

The NAIC, Kansas City, Mo., is currently discussing how the project will advance. Mr. Birnbaum has questioned why an NAIC conference call was held so that industry participants could express their concerns on the project and no comparable call was held for consumer representatives.

In response, the NAIC announced that it will hold a comparable call on July 28 for NAIC funded consumer representatives.

Mr. Birnbaum, in criticizing the NAIC prior to its announcement, also questioned NCOIL's passage of a resolution without adequate input from consumer representatives.

Mr. Kennedy said NCOIL “welcomes comments from any and all interested parties on Committee working drafts. The resolution that Mr. Birnbaum referenced was included in the NCOIL 30-day memo that was distributed prior to the NCOIL Summer Meeting to all meeting registrants. The memo was also posted on the NCOIL web site, where it was available for viewing by anybody with an Internet connection.”

Mr. Kennedy said also that all NCOIL committee meetings are open to the public and that Mr. Birnbaum, if he had chosen, could have attended the recent NCOIL summer meeting in New York. He noted that issues related to the resolution were discussed for an hour prior to the vote during the NCOIL meeting.