A Message from PIA's President
March 2010
When PIA members travel to Washington, D.C. in March to participate in the 2010 PIA Federal Legislative Summit, things may appear to be deceptively calm. That’s because for insurance issues this year, our nation’s capital is the eye of a hurricane.
Never before have the interests of Main Street insurance agents been threatened on so many fronts. A few examples:
By the time you read this, Democrats in Congress may have already rammed through a health insurance “reform” bill, despite Republican attempts to slow the process down. PIA has been striving, with some success, to try to make sure that Main Street independent insurance agents do not become collateral damage in this debate.
Our lobbyists have so far succeeded in reversing a previous attempt to specifically exclude agents from selling health insurance policies under the so-called exchanges that are being proposed. The latest proposal, to create a federal bureaucracy that would regulate health insurance rates, is counter to PIA’s position that the states, not the federal government, should continue to regulate the business of insurance. We are remaining on guard so that when it comes to healthcare, agents are seen as part of the solution rather than being defined as part of the problem.
The forces that want to create a new federal bureaucracy to regulate insurance that usurps the authority of the states have been relentlessly pursuing their goal. PIA remains steadfast in opposition to federal encroachment. A House committee has approved a bill to set up a national insurance office in the Treasury Department. PIA along with the NAIC and the National Conference of Insurance Legislators (NCOIL) succeeded in limiting the scope of this bill, but we must continue working to ensure that it does not get re-written to again make it friendlier to federal regulation, at the expense of the states.
The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), vital to PIA members’ clients who need flood insurance, keeps limping from one short-term congressional authorization to another. Congress needs to stop “kicking the can down the road” and get around to resolving differences on comprehensive reform paired with a five-year renewal.
Crop insurance agents and their fellow PIA members are actively offering their input to drafts of the USDA Risk Management Agency’s Standard Reinsurance Agreement for the federal crop insurance program. The Risk Management Agency (RMA) is proposing a soft-cap on agent commissions and a $6.9 billion cut to the program, on top of the $6.4 billion cuts already contained in the 2008 Farm Bill.
Washington, D.C. has never been known as a bastion of common sense. That’s why common sense must be regularly supplied to Capitol Hill by us: Main Street insurance agents who do business with real people, in the real world.
See you in Washington!
Jon D. Spalding
President
PIA National