Brief ⁽¹⁾

Senate Sub. for HB 2005, as amended, makes the following changes in Kansas insurance laws:

• Requires insurance companies filing financial reports with the Insurance Department to use the risk based capital instructions and formulas developed by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and in effect on December 31, 1999, and further, strikes the language requiring the Commissioner to adopt the instructions and formulas in rules and regulations.



• Amends one section of the Kansas Uninsurable Health Insurance Plan Act by striking the January 1, 2001, sunset date from the law and, additionally, amends the law pertaining to small group health insurance by deleting reference to a board which was abolished earlier by the Legislature.



• Repeals four statutes, thereby subjecting the insurance companies writing under those statutes to standard accounting procedures effective January 1, 2001. The Senate Committee of the Whole amendment permits one Kansas company to transition to standard accounting procedures in a reasonable time and according to a plan approved by the Insurance Commissioner.

• Allows mortgage insurance to be written on a mortgage loan for 100 percent of the fair market value of the real estate. (Current law allows for insurance up to 97 percent of the fair market value of the real estate.)

Background

HB 2005 was carried over from the 1999 Session. As originally drafted the bill would have required all new mandates for health insurance coverage or payments to providers be applied first to the State Employee Health Care Plan before general application to all health plans. The provisions of that bill were enacted in 1999 SB 3.

The Senate Committee amendments delete the provisions of HB 2005 as introduced and substitute language from 2000 SBs 440, 441, 443, and 444 previously passed by the Senate this session but pending action in the House of Representatives.

1. *Supplemental notes are prepared by the Legislative Research Department and do not express legislative intent. The supplemental note and fiscal note for this bill may be accessed on the Internet at http://www.ink.org/public/legislative/bill_search.html