Latest Politics Headlines

All the headlines from our Politics Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Fla. Senate Committee Passes No-Fault Measure Backed by AIA

Apr 9 2003 // The Florida Senate’s Banking & Insurance Committee gave its approval to no-fault legislation containing many reforms advocated by the American Insurance Association (AIA). According to the AIA, the Motor Vehicle...

Senate Passes Insurance Reform Bill

Apr 4 2003 // The Texas Senate passed, on a 28-3 vote, Senate Bill 14, major insurance reform legislation that addresses rate regulation and the use of credit-based insurance scores, among other things. Generally, the bill regulates the...

Water Claims Legislation Passes TX Senate Committee

Mar 27 2003 // Legislation authored by Texas Senator Troy Fraser to speed insurance companies’ response to water damage claims, limit the amount insurers can charge homeowners for previous water damage claims, and require the...

SENATE WANTS RATE ROLL BACK

Mar 24 2003 // Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst is working with the members of the Texas Senate to reach a consensus on driving homeowners insurance rates down by 12 to 15 percent, according to a Senate announcement. The chair of the...

Senate Repubs Reportedly Bent on Destroying Fla. Tort Reform Efforts

Mar 21 2003 // “It appears you no longer have to be a Democrat to be a friend of the trial bar in Florida,” William Stander, government affairs representative in Tallahassee for the Alliance of American Insurers (AAI),...

Coalition, Alliance Hail Senate Passage of NJ Auto Reform Bill, Now Look to Assembly for Action

Mar 21 2003 // The Alliance of American Insurers and the Coalition for Auto Insurance Competition both hailed the passage by the full New Jersey Senate, by a vote of 30-4-7, of legislation aimed at reforming what the Alliance called...

AIA Commends NJ Senate on Passage of Auto Insurance Reform Bill

Mar 20 2003 // The American Insurance Association commended the New Jersey Senate Commerce Committee “for its leadership and bipartisan action in passing historic legislation (Senate Committee Substitute/Senate 63) aimed at...

N.J. Senate Commerce Committee Unanimously Passes Auto Reform Bill

Mar 19 2003 // All that lobbying and demonstrating has apparently begun to pay off for New Jersey’s insurance community (See IJ Website Mar.18), as the state’s Senate Commerce Committee unanimously passed an amended version...

Ark. Senate Okays Tort Reform Bill

Mar 17 2003 // The National Association of Independent Insurers (NAII) reports the Arkansas Senate has amended and passed a House bill that would reform the state’s civil justice system. “We commend the Arkansas House and...

N.Y. Senate Passes Two Insurance Fraud Bills

Mar 10 2003 // At least the New York Senate seems to have heard the messages from the NAII and the PIANY. It passed two bills last week dealing with insurance fraud. The next hurdle will come when the state’s Assembly considers the...

Workers’ Comp Second Injury Fund Sunset Extension Moves to Iowa Senate

Mar 7 2003 // The American Insurance Association (AIA) said today that it strongly supports a five-year extension of the law that allows insurer assessments for Iowa’s workers’ compensation second injury fund to be based on...

Kan. Senate Passes ‘Sole-Basis’ Scoring Bill

Mar 6 2003 // The Kansas Senate has voted 39-0 for legislation that would prohibit insurers from using credit-based insurance scoring as the sole basis for underwriting and rating personal lines insurance. Senate Bill 144 is a hybrid of...

New Med-Mal Petition Introduced to Nev. Senate

Feb 25 2003 // Doctor-sponsored Initiative Petition 1 (IP1) was introduced to the Nevada Senate Feb. 21, in response to the medical malpractice crisis inflicting Nevada’s doctors—in particular, obstetricians, according to the...

Senate Privacy Bill Could Impede Progress in Calif. Business Climate

Feb 19 2003 // The Association of California Insurance Companies (ACIC) says a California consumer privacy bill that was set to be heard in the Senate Judiciary Committee Feb. 18 is unnecessary because current state law and department of...

Pa. Hospitals Applaud House Republicans’ Request for State of Emergency

Feb 18 2003 // The Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania (HAP) recognized state House Republicans as they called for Governor Ed Rendell (D) to declare a state of emergency in the Commonwealth as a result of the...

Senate Holds Hearing for Medical Litigation

Feb 13 2003 // The Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee held a joint hearing this week on “Patient Access Crisis: The Role of Medical Litigation.” Judiciary Chairman Orrin...

Senate Dems Move to Strip Med Mal Antitrust Exemption

Feb 13 2003 // Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and eight other Senate Democrats have introduced a bill that would strip medical liability insurers of their immunity to anti-trust laws. The Medical Malpractice Act of 2003 (S. 352) would amend...

First Insurance Bill Passes Texas Senate

Feb 13 2003 // The Texas Senate passed legislation that requires all insurers writing residential property insurance to make a one-time data report to the insurance commissioner for use in a report to the legislature on underwriting....

Georgia Senate Introduces Civil Justice Reform Bill

Feb 13 2003 // The National Association of Independent Insurers (NAII) said that over 20 Georgia senators are sponsoring a bipartisan civil justice reform act designed to address the high cost of health care and patient...

NAII Supports Medical Liability Reform Efforts in Senate

Feb 6 2003 // Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee (HELP), joined Senators Rick Santorum (R-Pa.),...