[StBernard] Congress will take on insurers

[Westley Annis]

By KATHERINE SAYRE


SUN HERALD WASHINGTON BUREAU

 
WASHINGTON - A House panel will investigate how insurance companies handled
claims after Hurricane Katrina, Rep. Melvin Watt, D-N.C., announced
Thursday.
 
"The hearing will examine concerns raised by both Democratic and Republican
members of Congress about whether private insurance companies have been
properly paying claims after Hurricane Katrina," said a news release from
Watt, who chairs the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations for Barney
Frank, D-Mass. Frank is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.
 
The hearing convenes at 2 p.m. Feb. 28, Watt's release said.
 
Taylor and Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood are scheduled to testify,
according to a release from Taylor's office.
 
Insurance companies have maintained that they paid what was owed under their
policies and can't be faulted for denying claims they collected no premiums
to cover.
 
But Taylor believes insurers wrote off damage they should have covered under
wind policies to the National Flood Insurance Program, which covers damage
from flooding.
 
"The Mississippi Coast suffered several hours of very destructive hurricane
winds before inundation by the storm surge," Taylor wrote in a Jan. 5 letter
to Frank. "Insurers paid billions of dollars of wind claims inland, where
they could not possibly blame flooding, but assumed that flooding caused all
the damage near the Coastline."
 
Hood led a year-long investigation into claims practices by State Farm Fire
and Casualty Co., but ended the inquiry as part of a settlement with the
company, which denies any wrongdoing.
 
Taylor and U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., have sent Hood a letter
asking him to preserve the records he collected for Congress. Taylor also is
collecting "insurance horror stories" from policyholders for Congress.
 
Taylor, a State Farm policyholder who lost his Bay St. Louis home to
Katrina, said Wednesday that the panel will examine possible "criminal
aspects" of insurers' practices.
Brian Martin, Taylor's policy director, said the congressman hopes this will
be the first of several hearings aimed at uncovering any wrongdoing and
proving the need for insurance reforms to prevent future problems.
 
Link to Rep. Taylor's request for hearing:
 
http://www.sunherald.com/multimedia/sunherald/archive/0119Insurance.investig
ation.request.pdf
 
 
 
 

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