A special committee has been formed in order to specifically focus on Race and Insurance.
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) has announced that it has created a special committee to address insurance industry racism and discrimination.
NAIC is seeking to improve the way its systems and coverage reflect and protect society.
“Our regulatory system and insurance in general is a reflection of the society it aims to protect, and while state insurance regulators have worked to eliminate overt discrimination and racism, we all have been increasingly aware that unconscious bias can be just as damaging to society,” said NAIC CEO Mike Consedine in a statement.
The NAIC committee will address insurance industry racism and discrimination through the following.
- Conducting research and analysis of the inclusion and diversity levels within this sector.
- Engage with a broad stakeholder group on matters of diversity, inclusion and race within the sector.
- Discover whether there are existing practices within the sector that have the potential to place minorities in a disadvantaged position.
- Provide the executive committee and membership with recommendations by the close of 2020. These recommendations will involve steps that regulators and the industry itself can take for improving inclusion and diversity. They will also involve actions to be taken to address those existing practices that are potentially disadvantageous to minorities. Additionally, they will make certain that engagement continues in NAIC with respect to these issues by way of task forces, committees and working groups.
Starting July 27, 2020, NAIC’s Summer 2020 National Meeting, which runs for three weeks, will include a special session that will specifically focus on insurance industry racism and discrimination, according to a recent Forbes report.
The Center for Economic Justice (CEJ) called out NAIC in June in a letter in which they specifically sought “To Address Societal Systemic Bias and Inherent Racism in Insurance By Explicit Recognition of Disparate Impact as Unfair Discrimination in Insurance.” It pointed to NAIC to explicitly recognize the impact the industry’s discrimination was having against 
minorities. This included a spectrum of the industry’s practices, activities and standards, which NAIC is now seeking to better understand and address through its committee and special session.
