WA Insurance Restitution Bill Fails to Advance in Legislature

A controversial bill concerning insurance has failed to make it out of committee in Olympia.

    Insurance restitution bill dies in Committee.

WA State Insurance Commissioner Patty Kuderer said Thursday Substitute Senate Bill 5331 failed to clear the House Consumer Protection and Business Committee and will not move forward.

Bills go back and forth between the chambers, and sometimes a bill that clears the Senate may die in the House, and vice-vesa.

The bill, according to the Insurance Commissioner's Office (ICO) would have benefitted consumers:

• "When an insurance company uses rates that haven’t been approved by the Insurance Commissioner, there is no mechanism to order repayment to policyholders who have overpaid.
• If an unauthorized insurer, like an illegal health insurer, defrauds policyholders, the Insurance Commissioner can fine the company but cannot order them to repay the money they took.
• If an insurance agent collects premiums but doesn’t forward that money to the insurance company — leaving the policyholder without coverage — the Insurance Commissioner can’t require them to repay the money they took."

Kuderer did not specify why the Committee chose not to pass the bill forward, but said fines are intended to be a deterrent to mismanagement and breaking law and policies.