Insurance Exchange Redux
February 27, 2010After a bit of a sabbatical, I am back with a new focus: the revival of an insurance exchange in New York!
In January 2010 New York’s Governor Patterson listed in his State-of-the-State message a number of economic initiatives to be pursued by his administration. Among them was a commitment to “rebuild the New York Insurance Exchange.” The Superintendent of Insurance, James Wrynn, has backed up this commitment by establishing a Working Group with several sub-groups to help formulate an action plan for the re-establishment of an insurance exchange in New York.
In February 2010, I was appointed by Superintendent Wrynn as a Special Advisor to the Insurance Department’s insurance exchange Working Group. Because of the interest in reviving the insurance exchange, the numerous requests I have received for materials on the old exchange, and my role as special Advisor to the Working Group, I have added a page to my web site with links to governing documents, articles, studies and publications relating to the original exchange. Click here to go to this new page, which includes links to pdf copies of the constitution and by laws and operating rules of the old exchange taken from my book Exchange: A Guide to an Alternative Insurance Market (NILS Publishing Co. 1987-1990), as well as the operative statute (Article 62 of the New York insurance law) and regulations (NY Regs 89, 89A and 89B) . It is hoped that making this information readily available to all interested parties will assist in the new effort.
Knowing the laws, regulations, rules, procedures and systems of the old exchange, however, is not the same as knowing which of those worked or did not work, and why. For that insight, there is no substitute for having been there; and having been there I plan to comment on a number of these matters as the Working Group moves forward.
What do you think?