Feb. 08--BOISE -- Kathy Peterson has kept a near-constant vigil this session in the Capitol rotunda.
"My opinion
Legislation discrimination
of my life insurance bill.
Need bill hearing," reads the sign she hopes lawmakers will begin to pay attention to.
For years, Peterson, of Meridian, has been pushing to get a bill passed requiring life insurance companies to make an attempt to contact customers by certified mail before canceling a policy for non-payment. She got a version of it introduced in 2014, but it never got a full hearing.
"I'm just trying to give things that added protection and get things on a good rapport between the insured and the insurer," Peterson said.
This year will be different -- she hopes. Peterson said she spoke late last week to David Hensley, Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter's chief of staff, and that he said House Speaker Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, is "inclined to allow a hearing" and would identify a lawmaker for her to work with.
For Peterson, it's personal -- after her mother died in 2012, Peterson and her siblings never got the $100,000 life insurance payment because, they were told, the policy had lapsed. The insurance company said her mother had stopped paying and they notified her by mail; Peterson says her mother, who paid premiums for almost 30 years, was told both by phone and by letter in 2007 that the policy was paid in full, and that she never got anything in the mail threatening to cancel it after that.
"We felt like victims of fraud," Peterson said.
Peterson went to court, but the case was dismissed. That's when she began to push for the bill. The current version would require notification by first-class mail, which is done now, for a first warning, and then by certified mail for a second if no response is received. Peterson has been using her Facebook page "My Life Insurance Protection Plan" to promote the idea, and she has heard from many people who have stories similar to hers.
A bill similar to Peterson's was heard in Connecticut in 2010 but didn't pass. There are some other states that require notification of insurance policy lapses by certified mail in some limited cases.
Virginia requires lapse notices for long-term care insurance to be sent to the policyholder and designated third party by certified mail. Maine requires notification by registered mail of a pending lapse if the policyholder is insured under the state's retirement system.
"She's passionate and she feels really strongly about her cause," said Senate Commerce and Human Resources Committee Chairman Jim Patrick, R-Twin Falls.
Patrick told the Times-News he has suggested to Peterson that she change the bill to get rid of the requirement for notification by certified mail, but she was unwilling to. Patrick said he doesn't generally block bills, but that his committee wouldn't back this one.
"There was no support for it," he said. "And I didn't want to waste the committee's time."
Requiring notifications by certified mail, Patrick said, could cost insurance companies a lot of money.
"They're persistent about sending bills out," he said. "It's not like they're negligent."
For Peterson, requiring certified mail is the best way to protect policyholders against unintentional lapses.
"There's so many reasons why people don't get their mail, it's just not reliable" to use first-class mail, she said.
Peterson said she plans to keep fighting for her bill. She said she wants to change the Legislature's operations to take the decision on whether to hear a bill away from just the committee chairmen: "My opinion (is), the statehouse should be the house of the people."
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