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Governmental affairsA myriad of issues on the home frontHere are just a few of the topics the 108th Congress is currently addressing: 1. Medical liability legislation At the top of the congressional list is medical malpractice insurance. The U.S. House of Representatives approved the HEALTH Act of 2003 (H.R.5) on March 13 by a vote of 229-196. The House action was a significant effort toward solving the liability crisis currently threatening access to health care nationwide. Sponsored by Pennsylvania Congressman James Greenwood (R-Doylestown), the HEALTH Act of 2003 (the Help Efficient, Accessible, Low Cost, Timely Health Care Act) has moved to the U.S. Senate. If passed, the legislation will limit punitive damages in health care liability lawsuits to two times the amount of economic damages or $250,000, whichever is greater. The measure also would limit non-economic pain and suffering damages to $250,000, institute a fair share rule to allocate damages based on fault, limit the time within which a suit may be brought for damages and establish a fee schedule to limit attorney contingency fees. State laws capping damages would not be affected by the legislation. Harleysville believes passage of H.R. 5 by the House is a significant step toward creating a liability system that fairly compensates those who are truly harmed, punishes egregious misconduct, improves access to quality and affordable health care, and reduces health care costs. Be sure to visit the governmental affairs site for future updates on this and other issues.
2. Class action reform legislation stalls in Senate After months of negotiation, on July 8, 2004, the Senate failed to reach an agreement on so-called “non-germane amendments” that would have moved the class action reform legislation (S. 2062) forward. The motion to shut off the debate (also known as invoking cloture) failed by a vote of 44-43, or 16 votes short of the 60-vote requirement. If passed, the legislation would have allowed for the removal of certain interstate class action lawsuits to federal court from state courts if requested by either plaintiffs or defendants. Currently, plaintiff’s attorneys take advantage of a loophole in jurisdictional rules in order to keep large, nationwide class actions out of federal courts where they are more appropriate. The class-action measure would require that such multi-plaintiff lawsuits be filed in federal court, shifting them away from state courts, some of which have become famous for large settlements with little for class members and big fees for the trial lawyers that filed the cases.
3. Treasury announces early decision to extend the “make On June 18, 2004, the Department of the Treasury announced its intention to extend the mandatory “make available” provisions of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act [TRIA] into 2005. As a result of the decision, insurers will continue to be required to make coverage available for losses due to covered acts of terrorism in all commercial property/casualty policies under conditions that do not differ materially from the other terms, amounts and other coverage limitations. Following the Treasury’s decision, the industry called upon federal lawmakers to take action to provide a two-year extension of the program. Failure to extend the program this year—along with the requirement that insurers make coverage available in 2005 for policies that extend into 2006—would cause significant problems for insurers, as well as policyholders. As a result of the successful lobbying efforts of the insurance industry, two partisan bills (H.R. 4634 and H.R. 4772) have been introduced in the House that would extend TRIA for two years beyond its current Dec. 31, 2005 deadline. Co-sponsored by Reps. Baker (R-La.), Kelly (R-N.Y.), and Cantor (R-Va.), H.R. 4634, the Terrorism Risk Insurance Extension Act of 2005, was introduced on June 22, 2004. An important step toward providing market stability, H.R. 4634 would:
H.R. 4772, the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program, is co-sponsored by Reps. Capuano (D-Mass.), and Israel (D-N.Y.), and was introduced on July 7. The bill is targeted to mollify the group life industry and have a greater appeal to the property/casualty industry. In summary, H.R. 4772:
4. President Bush signs Flood Insurance Reform Act into Law President Bush signed into law S. 2238, the “Bunning-Bereuter-Blumenauer Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2004.” S. 2238 reauthorizes the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), through 2008.
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