Quote:
Originally Posted by rahl
I can't speak for all insurance companies, but my company is based in NC. Our underwriting department is also based there. As far as I know there is no law currently that says that you must have an office in the state you are doing business in, so I'm not sure what your post means. We do business in all 50 states with only one underwriting office location.
|
Absolutely, and that's not uncommon. But how many different carriers are you using? If it's only one, then your example doesn't really fit the situation because you'd only be using that one to compete across state lines, which is theoretically already happening (assuming that you do have business in all 50 states). If you have more than one at your disposal to use in different states under different circumstances, then you're still already competing across state lines. At the end of the day, that's what it boils down to. An insurance company may be able to transact business in all 50 states, but, from the consumer's point of view, the different carriers that they use (the issuing company - i.e., National Union vs. Ins. Co. of the State of PA vs. Lexington vs. American Home, etc. all of which are AIG/Chartis companies) they are different companies. In reality they are not (well, Lexington is, but that's not really germain here).
In the Property/Casualty world, insurance companies have rules about internal competition. They don't want to give different quotes to the same buyer through different buyers. It makes them look stupid. That's worth pointing out because I think that health insurers will figure out fairly quickly that internal competition is bad for them and find ways to stem the flow.