What’s on the state Legislature’s insurance agenda for 2025?

David Weprin has represented Eastern Queens in the Assembly since 2010 after serving eight years in the New York City Council. He currently chairs the Assembly Insurance Committee where he sponsored Alice’s Law, which imposed criminal penalties on people who stage accidents and file fraudulent insurance claims. He has also passed legislation stopping insurers from discriminating against prescribing HIV prevention drugs. He is currently seeking to diversify the taxi and livery insurance market. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What were the most significant bills to come through the Assembly Insurance Committee this year? Any pending before the governor at the moment? Which ones are you monitoring, if any?

Last year, one of our major bills was eliminating co-payments for insulin, which was becoming very expensive. We have a bill that is going to be signed by the governor that passed both houses to limit co-payments on a small amount for EpiPens, which was another large amount for co-payment. A number of bills we had that passed both houses and are awaiting the governor’s signature have been chaptered. One I can think of is prohibiting insurers from discrimination against prescribing PrEP for HIV prevention. They were discriminating against, and we eliminated that, and that will go a long way. That was chaptered on June 28.

Are there any notable bills or topics you expect to come through your committee next session? New issues coming up? Ongoing issues you continue to address?

I have a bill that’s not in the Insurance Committee – it’s in the Codes Committee – to create a felony for staged accidents on construction sites, which is a major insurance fraud issue (that) has raised the cost of insurance on construction projects. That’s had support from the construction industry, and I’m going to make that a priority this coming session.

I had a bill called Alice’s Law that passed and was signed into law a few years ago. I had it with (state) Sen. (James) Seward, chair of the Senate Insurance Committee, which would make it a felony to stage a motor vehicle accident for purposes of insurance fraud, and we have a bill to expand that to get at some of the other individuals who are part of these rings that create a phony accident or doctors, lawyers and a whole group. We have certainly helped a lot with Alice’s Law, and we’re hoping to do the expansion next session.

We also had a roundtable with the governor’s office and (Department of Financial Services) about a week ago. … The fact that American Transit Insurance Co., which provides insurance for for-hire vehicles, taxi and livery vehicles, is basically in bankruptcy to the extent of $700 million, that one insurance company has 60% of the market and a couple others have a much smaller percentage, that’s a major problem. If the American Transit Insurance Co. goes under, they insure 60% of the market and none of the other players are equipped to fill the gap. We’re going to work with DFS over the next session. There are very few insurers left in that market. Part of the problem is they got a large percentage of the market because they kept lowering their premiums. You have to go to DFS to get increases in premiums but you don’t have to go to them to lower their premiums. That’s part of the problem that led to this situation.

Do states take the lead on insurance regulation, or is it addressed more on the federal level? How often do you interact with federal policymakers on insurance issues?  

It varies state by state. Insurance regulations are pretty much dominated by the individual states. New York and California are the largest in the insurance markets, but it’s pretty much state by state. Almost every major insurance company does business in New York. Even if they are not headquartered in New York they’re subject to regulation by the state legislature and DFS.

How much pressure are insurers in New York under due to climate change and the increasing frequency and severity of floods and other natural disasters? Are we seeing any insurers exiting the market?

We had a hearing on it about a year ago. A number of insurance companies were exiting the market or limiting their exposure in the market. It was a problem. For a long time, it was really a problem that Florida and California were having with climate change. Some of the hurricane-type storms that we’ve had, flooding that we’ve had, it certainly is becoming more of a problem in New York. So far we haven’t had a situation where there are no insurance companies that are willing to insure, but it’s become more expensive in New York to have premiums.

Are there hot spots you’re looking at?

Hot spots are along the coast, the Rockaways in Queens and Long Island. Places that have water in close vicinity and of course, there was a major problem.

What legislation, if any, has been enacted to deal with this? Has any other legislation been introduced to deal with this issue? Any broader thoughts on what the state Legislature can do on this front? 

We had a number of bills related to flooding and coverage and a package of bills. There is a bill on the governor’s desk that passed both houses last year which would direct DFS to conduct a study to examine the increasing cost of premiums and lack of insurance coverage for the loss (from) flooding, and support the possibility of a private insurance market for the state. I expect the governor to support the bill and we want to see what comes out of that study. Hopefully that will support additional legislation. That bill is A8942 and it passed both houses.

We never expected drought to be a problem in New York state. Obviously it is with the number of fires we’ve had upstate (and) downstate. I’ve had two brush fires in two parks in my Assembly district alone: Cunningham Park and Alley Pond Park. Thank God no one was hurt. They were dealt with with little damage, but they’re something we ever thought about or experienced. They’re something that we never expected to happen in Queens in these parks and it’s something we’re going to pay attention to.

Are rising insurance costs making it harder to ensure adequate affordable housing? It’s a factor, I don’t know if it’s a major factor, but it’s a factor. It’s something that we would think about. I have heard about it from developers, and some of these preventative measures on insurance fraud, like the state’s accidents on construction site issues, have led to driving up the cost of insurance premiums on construction and development in general. So if we can get that legislation passed it’s a step in the right direction to help build affordable housing.

Two Democratic colleagues, state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal and Assembly Member Phara Souffrant Forrest, introduced legislation to ban insurers from backing new fossil fuel projects and force them to phase out their support for existing ones. What’s your opinion on the measure?

It’s a concern but it’s not really so much of an insurance issue. We want to make sure the insurance companies are in place. We’re trying to avoid insurance decisions based on political decisions. They should be on the merits, on insurance in general, as opposed to making political statements or making decisions preventing insurance companies from insuring or not insuring. We want to keep away from those types of bills and deal with the problem and the issue. We don’t have an official position on it.

This summer, a coalition of business groups raised concerns that the Medicaid Investment Fund included in the latest state budget would impose a new tax on commercial health insurance and ultimately raise rates for New Yorkers. Have you been monitoring the issue? Are you concerned about this? What is the latest on that front? 

We’re always concerned about health insurance and the cost of health insurance. It’s something we’re constantly monitoring. The answer is yes, but there are a number of bills dealing with that issue. We just deal with them on a case-by-case basis, depending on when they come up. The rising cost of health insurance is certainly a topic that will be significant in the upcoming legislation.

You were a co-sponsor of the Grieving Families Act. Insurers argue that it would be too costly for them. How do you respond to those concerns? Do you expect Gov. Kathy Hochul to veto it again this year? If she does, what’s next?

There are a number of changes that were made to the legislation to deal with the issues that were raised in Gov. Hochul’s prior veto message. I’m hoping with those changes that were made – certainly there were a number of changes (made) to meet the governor’s objection, I’m hoping (that) this time she’s more likely to sign it with certain additional chapter amendments. It’s not the exact same bill. It’s the same subject. There were changes made to address the objections in the veto.