Oregon seeking comments on insurer assessments

Oregon’s Department of Consumer and Business Services is seeking public comments on its proposed amendment of administrative rules relating to assessments against insurers to fund regulatory functions under the insurance code.

The rulemaking implements recently enacted legislation that amended ORS law 731.804 authorizing DCBS to assess a premium on Oregon insurance policies to fund DCBS’s regulatory functions.

Assessments are imposed against premiums from life insurance, health insurance, and property and casualty insurance, according to the portion of Insurance Division resources needed for regulating each of those insurance categories. ORS 731.804 has included an exemption from the assessment for premium from certain types of insurance, such as annuities and workers’ compensation insurance. The costs of regulating the life insurance and annuity portion of the industry have been borne by issuers of life insurance.

The published amendment eliminates the exemption that has applied to annuity premium, changing the Insurance Division’s assessment authority. This legislation and rulemaking will not allow the Division to collect more assessment dollars than in the past, but rather will reallocate the payment of the life insurance premium portion of the total assessment, DCBS said. The assessment will be spread more broadly across life insurance and annuity premium, rather than life insurance premium alone.

The reallocation is necessary because annuities make up more than 65 percent of the total life and annuity premium, and because substantial staff resources are required to regulate annuity products, DCBS said.

The last day for public comment is Aug. 24, 2007. For information, visit www.cbs.state.or.us/ ins/rules/prop_admin_rules.html