House Insurance Committee Kills Consumer Protection Bill

Consumer Rights, Oklahoma Politics , , No Comments

Bill would have required insurance companies to notify customers that their policy does not include earthquake coverage.

OKLAHOMA CITY – State Rep. Mike Shelton said he is disappointed that a House committee voted down a consumer protection measure that would ensure Oklahomans are notified of the need to buy earthquake coverage.

“This was a simple bill that only required insurers to notify customers that their property insurance policy does not cover earthquake damage,” said Shelton, D-Oklahoma City. “Under current law, insurance companies must obtain an explicit opt-out from customers declining uninsured motorist coverage, and that system has worked fine for years. I don’t see why we would oppose greater transparency for the customer when it comes to earthquake coverage.”

House Bill 2863, by Shelton, would have required that customers obtaining or renewing property insurance policies be “notified as to whether the property insurance policy provides coverage for loss caused by the peril of earthquake.”

“After the recent earthquakes, many homeowners experienced significant damage and learned the hard way that it was not covered by a homeowner’s policy,” Shelton said. “My legislation would simply require insurance agents to explicitly notify customers that they do not have earthquake coverage and give them the opportunity to buy it.”

Shelton revised the bill this week to address the concerns of insurance groups, but noted that lobbyists for the insurance industry still “turned out in force” to oppose it today.

House Bill 2863 failed to pass out of the House Insurance Committee.

“Now that earthquakes have been added to the list of natural disasters facing Oklahoma homeowners, it makes sense to be proactive and encourage property owners to obtain earthquake insurance coverage,” Shelton said. “A house is the biggest single investment most families will ever make, and they should not face the loss of their home due to a lack of information.”

Drastic Meth-fighting legislation dies, alternative plan pursued

Health Care, Oklahoma Politics , , No Comments

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Tulsa World reports that House Bill 2941 failed to pass in the House Public Health Committee, effectively killing the legislation for this session. The bill proposed making pseudoephedrine, which is used to make Methamphetamine, available by prescription only.

The panel voted 13-0 to approve an alternative pushed by the pharmaceutical industry that would connect Oklahoma to a multistate electronic tracking and blocking registry. That measure, offered by Rep. David Derby, R-Owasso, would also reduce the amount of pseudoephedrine that an Oklahoman could purchase in one month to 7.2 grams, about 30 days worth of medicine for allergy sufferers.

Derby’s measure goes to the full House for consideration.

“This is the most responsible approach to controlling the access to pseudoephedrine without impeding access to people with legitimate needs,” Derby said.

Oklahoma House Blocks Effort to Reinstate Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

Oklahoma Politics , , No Comments

Oklahoma City – February 20, 2012 – Leaders at the Oklahoma House of Representatives today took steps to block passage of HB 2195, a bill seeking to reinstate the now-defunct Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) policy in the Oklahoma National Guard.  Introduced by Mike Reynolds (R-91), HB 2195 drew widespread condemnation from LGBT and civil rights advocates across the nation.   The bill has been reassigned from the House Veterans and Military Affairs committee to the House Rules committee.  The move effectively kills the bill.

“We applaud the commitment to fairness and justice shown by Speaker Kris Steele and a bipartisan group of other lawmakers today.  From 1993 to 2011, the U.S. government spent nearly $400 million in administrative, training, and recruitment costs associated with replacing the over 13,000 servicemembers expelled under DADT.  Rep. Reynolds’s bill directly violated federal policies and risked the loss of $294 million in annual federal funding to the Oklahoma National Guard. We are relieved that the brave men and women of the Oklahoma National Guard will not have their readiness compromised by the damage this legislation would have created.” said Laura Belmonte, chair of The Equality Network.

TEN worked in collaboration with the Human Rights Campaign, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, ACLU-Oklahoma, Oklahomans for Equality, Cimarron Alliance Foundation, and PFLAG chapters in opposing this misguided effort to turn back the clock on equality in Oklahoma.

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The Equality Network works to achieve equality and secure legal protection for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Oklahomans through advocacy, coalition building, and individual empowerment in the political process.

State house takes aim at unions

Labor, Oklahoma Politics , , No Comments

We Party Patriots reports:

Oklahoma Constitutional Amendment Aims to Give “Taxpayers” Power to Dictate Use of Union Money

The few, the brazen, the Oklahoma GOP.

Already reeling from the disastrous implementation of a “Right-to-Work” law and with union membership below 8%, Oklahoma Republican David Holt has a solution for all his state’s economic woes: attack unions some more!

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