Every Sunday, “Back in the Day” looks at an article that ran on this date in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. The items are verbatim, so don’t blame us today for yesteryear’s bad grammar.
Leaping insurance rates and policy cancellations have hit Hawaii like an "aftershock," state Insurance Commissioner Mario Ramil says.
"The problem has been on the Mainland for a long time," he said in an interview. "But this has just happened (here)."
Ramil said the insurance division, which he administers in the state Department of Commerce and Consumer
Affairs, has received increasing reports the past month about midterm cancellations of policies and nonrenewals.
He said pesticide operators and child-care facilities were the first affected. Congress is holding hearings to see what can be done in those areas because of the severe situation on the Mainland, he said.
Most other businesses and professions requiring liability insurance also are feeling the impact, such as restaurants and bars, ambulance drivers, attorneys, bank directors, insurance agents, Realtors and automobile dealers, Ramil said.
Even Honolulu’s city government bypassed insurance coverage because of the high cost and is setting up its own fund to pay claims and damages.
"In some municipalities, council members are quitting because they can’t get liability insurance for themselves," he said.
"We are very, very concerned about midterm cancellation and even nonrenewals," Ramil said. "From our perspective, that type of practice should be limited."
He said his staff is looking into the midterm policy cancellations to see if they are "a violation of accepted practice."
Ramil also plans to issue a memorandum about such insurance actions.
"We don’t feel the policyholder should be suffering from this problem they — the insurance companies — have created," he said.
He said he obtained "the cooperation of certain domestic companies" to write policies for some local businesses that weren’t able to get coverage. "But, of course, the problem is escalating. … this is a nationwide problem and it has worldwide implications."
