In testimony before the Nevada Assembly Committee on Commerce and Labor, the Consumer Federation of America opposed AB 376, which would allow insurance companies to raise rates on Nevada homeowners, renters, and motorists before the Division of Insurance (DOI) reviews filings and with no accountability if the rate change is excessive, financially unsound, or otherwise unfair to Nevada residents.

This bill will cost Nevadans millions of dollars in higher insurance premiums and provide no recourse for consumers or the state when insurers are found to have overcharged customers. Under the bill, an insurer can increase its rates however high and however often it wants and charge its customers the new rate without waiting for the Division’s assessment of whether or not the rate complies with state laws prohibiting excessive, inadequate, or unfairly discriminatory rates.

AB 376, far from improving Nevada’s insurance system, would expose Nevadans to unrestrained and unjustified rate hikes. It is an astonishing attempt by the insurance industry to take advantage of the national insurance crisis to undermine safeguards for Nevadans and erode regulatory scrutiny in multiple ways. Effectively, Nevada would have little or no insurance oversight at all—and insurers would be free to engage in price gouging to their hearts’ content.