Missouri’s Lakin to Moderate Kansas City Roundtable

The Missouri Department of Insurance announced that its director, Scott B. Lakin, will hosed a public roundtable discussion on key issues facing consumers and regulators in Kansas City on May 23. Five state insurance directors and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) executive director will participate.

The roundtable will take place during the 13-state Midwestern zone retreat of the NAIC, the national trade group for state and territorial insurance regulators that also is based in Kansas City. Among the issues to be addressed is state regulation of insurance.

Scheduled to participate are:

Nathaniel S. “Nat” Shapo, Illinois Department of Insurance director and NAIC secretary-treasurer.;

Tim Wagner, director of the Nebraska Department of Insurance;

Lee Covington, Ohio Department of Insurance director and chair of the NAIC ‘s Midwestern zone;

Mike Pickens, NAIC vice president and the Arkansas Department of Insurance commissioner, who is tentatively scheduled to attend;

Cathy Weatherford, executive vice president of the NAIC, who supervises the organization’s staff and initiatives.

The session is scheduled from 1 to 2:30 p.m. The first half has been set aside for a mix of prepared questions. In the second half, reporters may pose questions for the panelists.

Insurance, alone among the leading areas of commerce in the U.S., still is primarily the responsibility of states to regulate. Some industry groups and public officials have proposed greater federal involvement and supervision.

But the NAIC has addressed many issues prompting those proposals, including streamlining and standardizing the regulatory process to allow easier introduction of insurance products into financial services markets.

Insurance issues have emerged among the major concerns of consumers and business owners. Legislatures and regulators in more than half the state capitals this year, for example, are debating how to regulate the use of personal credit histories in underwriting and rating auto and homeowners policies.

After a long period of price stability in personal lines of insurance, substantial premium increases have affected homeowners and health insurance. The homeowners market faces significant changes in how insurers approach risks, and the jump in health insurance costs helped prompt the spread of illegal health plans and fraud that leave consumers with large unpaid medical bills.

The Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center sent shock waves through the entire insurance industry, which faces losses approaching $50 billion, and businesses also are dealing with price increases that predated that tragedy. Several business lines of insurance face availability problems, including medical malpractice – termed a “crisis” in as many as 35 states – and nursing home liability.

Topics Kansas Missouri