Commissioner wants insurance law fixes

OLYMPIA – Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler wants authority to limit the amount of surpluses insurance companies can amass when considering rate hike requests.

He’ll ask the Legislature for the authority to take surpluses into account and deny rate hikes of an insurance company whose surplus totals more than three months’ worth of claims expenses.

Under current law, surpluses, which include investment income, can’t be considered when deciding a request for a rate increase, Kreidler said in a news release Monday. “Some nonprofit insurers have built up hundreds of millions of dollars in surpluses in recent years, while still seeking double-digit rate hikes,” the release said.

He also wants the law changed to let the public see what percentage of a rate request goes to profit, to medical costs and to administrative costs.

Jim Camden