I take issue with Kevin Weed’s Sunday guest commentary “Insurance rates would rise for all under reckless bill.”
Contrary to Weed’s assertions, SB 5726 is the most consumer-oriented insurance bill passed in Washington in years. For the first time, insurance carriers who mistreat premium-paying insureds will have to play on a level playing field – not one stacked in their favor.
Prior to SB 5726, consumers whose claims or benefits were denied unreasonably had no real remedy: even if they sued and prevailed, given the often small amounts involved, they ended up on the short end of the stick. With this bill, rather than insurers being able to attempt to cut every claim by a few dollars to add millions to the insurer’s bottom line over the course of thousands of claims, insurers will now have to act reasonably in adjusting their insured’s claim, or face the possibility of paying the insured up to three times the benefits that were rightfully owed under the insurance contract.
To avoid liability under the new law, all insurers must do under the language of the statute is treat their insured “reasonably” – is this too much to ask when they take their premiums month after month and year after year? The bill will provide an incentive for insurers to treat their insureds fairly and reasonably.
And, if Professor Weaver is right (which she is not) and no problem exists, what do the insurance companies have to worry about? This is a wonderful bill that will, for the first time in this state’s history, provide folks who have paid hard-earned dollars for insurance coverage to get what they paid for when they need it most, without having to fight their insurance company.
Gov. Gregoire should be proud to sign this bill on behalf of Washington consumers, and I urge her to do so.
Brad Fulton
Everett
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