Industry Updates
‘Difficult Conversations’ About Race at NAIC Meeting

• Timothy Darragh
• May 2021
• 

When the National Association of Insurance Commissioners announced the formation of a special committee on race and insurance during the 2020 summer of civil unrest, officials said the proceedings would bring out “difficult conversations” about the industry's record on issues of race.

Bits and pieces of those conversations made their way into the April 12 NAIC Spring Meeting of the Special Committee on Race in Insurance, as regulators and industry trade representatives revealed sore points—and areas of agreement—that have emerged over recent months.

The dialogue came as NAIC President David Altmaier presented a first draft of proposed 2021 charges for the five workstreams from the committee studying race issues in the NAIC itself, the regulatory community and the property/casualty, life and health insurance sectors. The charges range from identifying diversity, equity and inclusion best practices to questions over third-party data to steps to eliminate barriers to health coverage in communities of color and other disadvantaged groups.

In written comments industry trade groups said they have been committed from the start to addressing difficult questions.

For the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, the problem has been that too much of the work has been in regulator-only meetings, said Director of Auto and Underwriting Policy Tony Cotto.

In NAMIC's opinion, he said, the question in a number of the proposed charges is not how to fix a problem, but whether one exists.