Reinsurance Focus

The following are selected bills in the reinsurance area that were either recently introduced or adopted in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Global Reinsurance Report. Representative Barney Frank (D-Mass.) introduced H.R. 4173 on December 2, 2009. A key purpose of the bill is to enhance Federal understanding of insurance issues. The bill, as it relates to reinsurance, mandates that the Director of the Federal Insurance Office (to be established under another section of the bill) submit a report on the global reinsurance market and the critical role such market plays in supporting insurance in the United States to the House Committee on Financial Services and the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs by September 30, 2011. On the same day, the bill was referred to the Committee on Financial Services, and in addition to other Committees to the extent such provision fell within the jurisdiction of the Committee concerned.

Temporary Health Reinsurance Program. On November 7, 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act by a vote of 220-215. On the same day, during House Floor consideration of H.R. 3962, Representative John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) had proposed an amendment (bill text and bill summary) in the nature of a substitute to H.R. 3962, which sought, among other things, to create Universal Access Programs that expand and reform high-risk pools and reinsurance programs to guarantee that all Americans, regardless of pre-existing conditions or past illnesses, have access to affordable care while lowering costs for all Americans. This amendment failed by a vote of 176-258.

The Act, as it relates to reinsurance, requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) to establish a temporary reinsurance program to assist participating employment-based plans with the cost of providing health benefits to retirees and to eligible spouses, surviving spouses and dependents of such retirees. This provision would take effect 90-days after enactment of the Act. Among other things, the Act requires the Secretary of HHS to establish a temporary national high risk pool program to provide health benefits to certain uninsured individuals who have a medical condition. This program would begin on January 1, 2010 and would end when the Health Insurance Exchange is established pursuant to the Act.

H.R. 3962 was received by the Senate on November 9, 2009. It was placed on the Senate Legislative Calendar under general orders on November 16, 2009.

This post written by Karen Benson.