1-1     By:  Ellis                                            S.B. No. 1142

 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed March 11, 1997; March 17, 1997, read

 1-3     first time and referred to Committee on Economic Development;

 1-4     May 6, 1997, reported adversely, with favorable Committee

 1-5     Substitute by the following vote:  Yeas 7, Nays 1; May 6, 1997,

 1-6     sent to printer.)

 1-7     COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 1142                   By:  Ellis

 1-8                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-9                                   AN ACT

1-10     relating to public access to certain underwriting guidelines used

1-11     by insurers.

1-12           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

1-13           SECTION 1.  Subsection (a), Article 1.24D, Insurance Code, is

1-14     amended to read as follows:

1-15           (a)  The department or the office of public insurance counsel

1-16     may require disclosure to the department or the office of public

1-17     insurance counsel [request and receive copies] of an insurer's

1-18     underwriting guidelines.  Underwriting guidelines are confidential

1-19     and the department or the office of public insurance counsel may

1-20     not make the guidelines available to the public, provided, however,

1-21     that the department or the office of public insurance counsel may

1-22     disclose the underwriting guidelines of an individual insurer

1-23     without directly identifying the insurer who provided those

1-24     guidelines or a summary of the underwriting guidelines in a manner

1-25     that does not directly or indirectly identify the insurer who

1-26     provided the guidelines.

1-27           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-28     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-29     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-30     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-31     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

1-32     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

1-33     passage, and it is so enacted.

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