A funded consumer representative is asking state insurance regulators when the reps will get their chance to comment on a proposed Market Conduct Analysis Statement.
The consumer reps get funding from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Kansas City, Mo., to represent consumers in NAIC proceedings.
Birny Birnbaum, executive director of the Center for Economic Justice, Austin, Texas, today wrote to NAIC President Sandy Praeger to ask why the reps have received no response to a July 8 e-mail requesting a chance to express their views on the NAIC's market conduct statement project, which could create a new, standard system for collecting and storing market conduct data.
The consumer reps also want to know why they have not received information about the project or an explanation of why a conference call to discuss the issue was canceled, Birnbaum writes in the letter.
"I ask that the NAIC show at least the same responsiveness to consumer concerns as it does to industry concerns," Birnbaum writes. "I also ask that the NAIC operate with a reasonable level of public accountability, such that an issue scheduled for public discussion does not simply disappear without explanation."
Birnbaum said in an interview that the market conduct analysis project is "of critical importance to consumers."
"The NAIC as an organization needs to be more responsive," Birnbaum said.
The NAIC was not immediately available to comment on the letter.
In related news, Birnbaum questioned a move by the National Conference of Insurance Legislators, Troy, N.Y., to pass a market conduct reporting resolution last week.
