Baria comments on dead insurance bills

During the chaos of Tuesday's deadline to move bills out of committee that originated in the other house of the Legislature, Sen. David Baria, D-Bay St. Louis, released a statement about the Senate Insurance Committee failing to take up Hurricane Katrina related insurance reforms this session. The last bill died Tuesday. Baria had submitted seven of his own, which the committee also killed.

Baria said Tuesday:

"Today (Tuesday) is the deadline for committee action on the Premium Payer Bill of Rights (HB 498) and Senate Insurance Committee Chairman Clarke has announced that he intends to let it die via “pocket veto." This is the same maneuver that Sen. Tommy Robertson employed last year to kill the cigarette/grocery tax swap. As a result of this move, the legislature will have allowed another year go by without taking one single step to reform the way insurance claims are handled in Mississippi after a catastrophe such as Hurricane Katrina.

He continues: "The House version of the bill, which was stripped down version of the Senate bill, would have placed the all-important burden of proof on the insurance company in a “slab” case. The Senate version would have also voided the grossly unfair anti-concurrent clause exclusion as a matter of public policy. This is the provision buried in policies that allows the insurance company to deny claims when wind causes damage, but water later flows into the structure.

"It has been said alternately that the issue needs more study or that the legislation would impose mandates on the insurance industry, but neither reason holds much water. In the two and ½ years since Katrina no study committee has ever been appointed. Concerning mandates, there are no mandates in the bill except that a requirement that the rights of consumers and duties of the insurer be spelled out and attached to every policy. This “mandate” may add $.05 to the cost of a policy.

"While recovery has stagnated on the Gulf Coast due to insurance issues, and thousands of claims remain unresolved, the legislature will let another year go by without action. This is a disservice to all Mississippians, not just Coast residents. The next time a catastrophe strikes it may be somewhere else in Mississippi and it will be too late to correct the problems in getting claims paid that were exposed by Katrina."