Should it become a law, these individuals will be able to maintain their policies when changing states.
At the moment, members of the military and their families cannot necessarily carry their auto insurance coverage from one state to the next when they are required to move for their jobs, but a new bill has now been introduced in Congress with the intention of changing that trend.
This bill would make it possible for the policies to be kept active when moving from one state to another.
The Servicemembers Insurance Relief Act (H.R. 4669) was introduced by U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois), a member of the House Armed Services Committee and an Iraq war veteran, as well as by U.S. Rep. Ed Royce (R-California), who is a senior House Financial Services Committee member. It is anticipated that this auto insurance bill will be referred to the House Financial Services Committee.
The goal of the auto insurance bill is to help to make the lives of service members more affordable.
It is geared toward making it easier for service members and their family to be able to move from one state to the next, whenever they are required to do so for their jobs, despite the changing insurance regulatory systems in each individual state. The hope is that it will make the process of continually uprooting themselves and their families much smoother and more affordable.
According to Rep. Royce, “This bipartisan legislation makes a simple but meaningful change to current law that will lessen the burden on service members and their families during times of transition.”
The Federal Insurance Office (FIO) released a report last year, in December, on modernizing regulation. Within it, it connected the lack of auto insurance product uniformity that receives approval on the state level with struggles that are currently being faced by the military. The FIO also stated that it intends to support both the industry and the states in making it easier for service members and their families to be able to relocate while retaining their coverage. This may involve a number of different steps, possibly including the creation of a special type of policy meant specifically for active service members, which could then be recognized across the country.
I am all for any law that will make the life of active military easier. I think the most immediate law that needs to be passed is to allow veterans and active service members to have the same health insurance as members of Congress. There is no way a person who served this country should have to wait over a month to see a doctor. With that being said, I’m not sure how this auto insurance law can work because there are a lot of regional insurance carriers who don’t exist in 50 states. So how will they carry over the same policy to the new state in which they live?