Insurance companies got the Arizona Legislature to pass a 265-page bill; 2 sentences of it cut funds [View all]

[TexasTowelie]

Insurance companies got the Arizona Legislature to pass a 265-page bill; 2 sentences of it cut funds for consumer protection


A bill backed by the insurance industry and rushed through the Arizona Legislature last year will cut a source of funding for the consumer protection agency tasked with policing insurance companies, state officials have warned.

While the Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions routinely inspects insurers’ finances, new legislation means it can no longer pass on all the costs of those inspections to insurance companies, as it has in the past.

That change in policy may save those companies money but comes even as the department's director describes the department as operating with “bare-bones staffing.”

“If the Department lacks the resources to identify systemic violations in insurer conduct, or problems with insurer financial conditions, all Arizonans suffer the consequences,” Evan G. Daniels, director of the Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions, wrote in a budget request to Gov. Doug Ducey.

Read more: https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/legislature/2021/01/28/arizona-law-insurance-industry-skip-costs-inspections/4010306001/