NU Online News Service, May 13, 2003, 5:23 p.m. EDT – Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, a Democrat, has signed a bill that updates Arizona's long-term care insurance laws to include consumer-protection standards promoted by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Kansas City, Mo.
The bill, H.B. 2153, was introduced by Rep. Ted Carpenter, R-Phoenix, chairman of the House Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee.
The act based on the bill gives the director of the Arizona Department of Insurance explicit authority to prescribe a standard format for long-term care insurance marketing materials.
The act also gives the director authority to make insurers charge adequate initial rates and give policyholders some protection against substantial rate increases.
The Arizona insurance department "is concerned that some insurers offering LTC tend to initially underprice their products," the Senate staff writes in a bill analysis. "Such underpricing then results in insurers later imposing significant price increases that make the product unaffordable for people who have already paid premiums for some time, and who are nearing the time when they may need to call upon the coverage."
