Proposed Law to Help Insurance Companies?

AMARILLO–  Texas property owners may be losing some protections when it comes to filing an insurance claim.A watchdog group has concerns about a bill making its way through the Texas legislature.

Senate bill 1628 already passed the state senate. The house version will soon be debated.

According to the group “Texas Watch”, if signed into law, it would make millions of individual and commercial insurance policies in Texas nearly worthless overnight.

The bill’s author in the senate says the bill would help cut down on fraud.

But, consumer groups says it does much more than that.

In fact, they say it would take away many rights of the property owners. For instance, it would allow insurance companies to use deceptive practices to deny or delay claims.

The executive director of Texas Watch, Alex Winslow, says the bill would also remove any penalties insurance companies are now forced to pay for using said deceptive practices.

“The current form of Senate Bill 1628 insurance companies have incentive to cheat their home and business customers. We need to restore and preserve the rights of policy holders so that they can get paid in full and on time for their valid insurance claim.” Winslow said.

Winslow says if it becomes law, insurance companies would be able to pay claims whenever they feel like because the penalties and interest would be eliminated.