 |
| ESPC Home | | | 2003-04 LAP* Book | | | Background | | | Legislator Profiles | | | Key Votes | | | LAP* Book Home |
|
|
| Numeric List |
|
|
| Budget |
|
|
| Accountability |
|
|
|
Health & Human Services |
|
|
| Justice System |
|
|
| Education |
|
|
| State Employees |
|
|
|
Taxation & Revenue |
|
|
|
Wildlife & Environment |
|
|
|
Worker & Public Safety |
|
|
| Tribal Affairs |
|
|
| Senior Citizens |
|
|
2004 Budget Session
SF 62 proposed some additional regulations that would apply to non-competitive insurance markets and to medical malpractice insurance.
When insurance rates are regulated as non-competitive markets, SF 62 would require a public hearing when an insurance company requested a rate increase greater than 30% above the previously approved rate. For non-competitive insurance markets and for professional liability insurance, SF 62 also would limit the amount by which an individual insured person's rate could vary, and would limit the amount an insurance company could charge for extended reporting coverage.
SF 62 would require advance notice of policy cancellation or premium increase for professional malpractice liability insurance of at least 90 days.
Wyoming statutes state that the Insurance Commissioner may regulate insurance rates if the unregulated market is a non-competitive market, and if regulation will reduce rates without substantially curtailing the availability of insurance in that market.
Supporters of SF 62 believed that the additional regulation it brought to medical malpractice insurance rates might help address the problems that Wyoming doctors have experienced as a result of large increases in malpractice insurance rates in recent year.
Opposition to SF 62 was minimal, and the bill passed the Senate 28-1 (1 conflict-of-interest). Senator Cale Case (R-S25, Lander) cast the lone "No" vote.
The bill was unanimously passed by the House Labor, Health and Social Services Committee and placed on the House general file, but it was not scheduled for action by the House Committee of the Whole by the deadline for legislative action, so it died on general file.