Alabama Senate Approves Insurance Bills
By George Talbot, Mobile Press Register, March 26, 2012
MONTGOMERY, Ala. The Alabama Senate has approved a package of five bills that could bring insurance relief to homeowners in coastal Alabama.
“This is real progress,” said state Sen. Ben Brooks, R-Mobile, (pictured above) a leading advocate for insurance reform. “The Senate has done its job, and now the battle shifts to the House.”
Brooks said the package includes four bills that would bring needed improvements to the state’s market for homeowner’s insurance, and a fifth bill sought by insurance companies that would ease investment restrictions.
The bills approved by the Senate late Tuesday include:
• SB210 – Requiring insurers to disclose information to the state Department of Insurance, which would aggregate the data and create a public database, searchable by ZIP code, showing how many policies insurers write, how much they charge for premiums and how much they lose in claims.
• SB227 – Allowing homeowners to create “catastrophe savings accounts,” which would have tax benefits similar to a retirement account and could be used to help pay for storm damage.
• SB230 – Providing tax breaks to insurance companies that write policies in parts of south Alabama
• SB164 – Allowing Alabama-based insurers to invest money out of state.
Several of the bills stalled last week in a standoff between members of the Mobile delegation and lawmakers backed by Alfa Mutual Group, one of the state’s leading insurance providers.
The Mobile lawmakers vowed to filibuster any legislation introduced by their Senate rivals – namely, state Sens. Clay Scofield, R-Cullman, Tom Whatley, R-Auburn, and Roger Bedford, D-Russellville – until action was taken on the insurance package.
“Our strategy was effective,” Brooks said Thursday. “They backed off and the package went through.”
Jeff Helms, a spokesman for Montgomery-based Alfa, said the company was committed to working with coastal lawmakers to achieve needed reform.
“The passage of these bills represents significant progress in bringing about some of the changes that policyholders have sought,” Helms said. “This package is proof that when legislators, consumer groups and the industry work together, they can achieve meaningful results.”
If approved by the House, the bills could be signed into law by Gov. Robert Bentley before the end of the current session.
The package could be expanded to include additional legislation backed by House members. State Rep. Steve McMillan, R-Bay Minette, is sponsoring bills that would strengthen the penalties for insurance fraud and create a Homeowner’s Bill of Rights.
“We won’t get everything we want, but we are making good steps that ultimately should benefit homeowners across Alabama,” Brooks said.
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