Bill Text: NY S04719 | 2017-2018 | General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Promotes competitive property and casualty insurance markets for business to business insurance transactions.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2018-06-20 - COMMITTED TO RULES [S04719 Detail]
Download: New_York-2017-S04719-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 4719 2017-2018 Regular Sessions IN SENATE February 24, 2017 ___________ Introduced by Sen. SEWARD -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Insurance AN ACT to amend the insurance law, in relation to promoting competitive property and casualty insurance markets for business to business insurance transactions The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the "Compet- 2 itive Commercial Insurance Markets Act". 3 § 2. Section 2302 of the insurance law, paragraphs 5 and 6 of 4 subsection (a) as amended and paragraph 7 of subsection (a) as added by 5 chapter 614 of the laws of 1997, is amended to read as follows: 6 § 2302. Applicability. (a) This article shall apply to all kinds of 7 insurance written on risks or operations in this state by an insurer 8 authorized to do business in this state except: 9 (1) reinsurance (other than joint reinsurance to the extent stated in 10 section two thousand three hundred seventeen of this article); 11 (2) accident and health insurance; 12 (3) annuities, life insurance, including provisions for non-cancella- 13 ble disability benefits in conjunction therewith; 14 (4) marine insurance (other than personal inland marine insurance 15 covering property of individuals or households and insurance upon auto- 16 mobiles[, airplanes, seaplanes, dirigibles or other aircraft]); 17 (5) marine protection and indemnity insurance; 18 (6) insurance issued by an assessment cooperative fire insurance 19 company; [and] 20 (7) service contract reimbursement insurance; and 21 (8) commercial lines specialty insurance, which includes: 22 (i) aircraft liability and hull insurance; 23 (ii) surety and fidelity insurance; 24 (iii) commercial inland marine insurance; EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD10253-01-7S. 4719 2 1 (iv) boiler and machinery insurance; 2 (v) environmental impairment/pollution liability insurance; 3 (vi) kidnap and ransom insurance; 4 (vii) political risk or expropriation insurance; 5 (viii) excess and umbrella liability insurance; 6 (ix) directors' and officers' liability insurance; 7 (x) fiduciary liability insurance; 8 (xi) employment practices liability insurance; 9 (xii) errors and omission and professional liability insurance 10 (other than medical malpractice); 11 (xiii) media liability insurance; 12 (xiv) product liability, product recall or completed operations insur- 13 ance; 14 (xv) cybersecurity insurance, including first and third party commer- 15 cial lines coverage for losses arising out of or relating to data priva- 16 cy breaches, network security, computer viruses and similar exposures, 17 and including identity theft group insurance policies under section 18 three thousand four hundred fifty-one of this chapter; 19 (xvi) highly protected commercial property insurance; 20 (xvii) commercial flood insurance (other than national flood insurance 21 program); 22 (xviii) commercial lines travel insurance, including group property 23 travel insurance policies under section three thousand four hundred 24 fifty-two of this chapter; 25 (xix) all commercial lines kinds of insurance and classes of risk, 26 other than workers' compensation and automobile insurance, when 27 purchased by a commercial policyholder with aggregate annual commercial 28 property and casualty insurance premiums of twenty-five thousand dollars 29 or more excluding premiums paid for workers' compensation and automobile 30 insurance; and 31 (xx) any other commercial lines kinds of insurance or classes of risk 32 that the superintendent deems, pursuant to regulation, exempt from rate 33 and policy form filing requirements in order to promote enhanced compe- 34 tition or to more effectively use the resources of the department that 35 otherwise might be used to review commercial lines specialty policy 36 insurance form or rate filings. 37 (b) The superintendent may from time to time make investigations with 38 respect to classes of risks of the kinds of insurance exempted in [para-39graph one hereof] subsection (a) of this section and may call upon all 40 authorized insurers and rate service organizations making rates for such 41 risks to furnish information relative thereto. 42 (c) With respect to the classes of risks of the kinds of insurance 43 exempted in paragraph eight of subsection (a) of this section, the 44 superintendent may temporarily reinstate, for a period of no longer than 45 one year, the requirement for rate or form filings for a specific class 46 of risk if, after a hearing, the superintendent makes a finding of fact 47 that a reasonable degree of competition does not exist for that specific 48 class of risk. Such a finding of fact by the superintendent must specify 49 the relevant tests used to determine whether a lack of a reasonable 50 degree of competition exists and the results thereof. In the absence of 51 such specific findings of fact by the superintendent, a competitive 52 market is presumed to exist. 53 § 3. Section 3201 of the insurance law is amended by adding a new 54 subsection (e) to read as follows: 55 (e) Except for paragraphs one and three of subsection (c) of this 56 section, this section shall not apply to commercial lines travel insur-S. 4719 3 1 ance. However, with respect to commercial lines travel insurance, the 2 superintendent may temporarily reinstate, for a period of no longer than 3 one year, the requirement for policy form filings if, after a hearing, 4 the superintendent makes a finding of fact that a reasonable degree of 5 competition does not exist for that specific type of insurance. Such a 6 finding of fact by the superintendent must specify the relevant tests 7 used to determine whether a lack of a reasonable degree of competition 8 exists and the results thereof. In the absence of such specific findings 9 of fact by the superintendent, a competitive market is presumed to 10 exist. 11 § 4. This act shall take effect on the first of January next succeed- 12 ing the date on which it shall have become a law and shall apply to all 13 property and casualty insurance policies issued, renewed or modified on 14 or after such date.