Showing archive for: “Insurance Law Legislation & Policy”
Old Insurance Wisdom for New AI Risks
Artificial intelligence (AI) may be new to the insurance market, but uncertainty is an old customer. Insurers have spent centuries figuring out how to price unfamiliar risks, reward precautions, and avoid betting the whole portfolio on the same weak link. AI gives them new facts to assess, not a reason to discard that experience. In ... Old Insurance Wisdom for New AI Risks
Doom, Meet Duty: AI’s Warnings Come With Legal Baggage
Predicting the end of humanity is one way to get a headline. For artificial intelligence (AI) developers, it may also be one way to hand a future plaintiff evidence. Developers have become some of the loudest voices warning about their own systems. Predictions that AI could drive humanity to extinction—once widely dismissed as absurd—now make ... Doom, Meet Duty: AI’s Warnings Come With Legal Baggage
AI Insurance and the Backstop Reflex: A Policy for Every Risk, a Taxpayer for Every Loss
Washington has a standard playbook when it comes to emerging commercial risks: Make companies buy insurance coverage, then put taxpayers behind the losses. That prescription is gaining fans as artificial intelligence (AI) creates new liability risks. It skips the question insurers need answered first. What, exactly, will courts hold their customers liable for? Nearly a ... AI Insurance and the Backstop Reflex: A Policy for Every Risk, a Taxpayer for Every Loss
Private Credit, Public Panic: Why Life Insurers Are Stronger Than the Headlines Suggest
Private credit has become the financial system’s latest designated villain: opaque, fast-growing, and—depending on the headline—one bad quarter away from dragging insurers, banks, and retirees down with it. For the past two years, warnings about life insurers’ private-credit investments have become a staple of financial commentary. In 2024, the International Monetary Fund cautioned that private ... Private Credit, Public Panic: Why Life Insurers Are Stronger Than the Headlines Suggest
‘Punitive Damages as Societal Damages,’ by Catherine M. Sharkey
Catherine Sharkey’s “Punitive Damages as Societal Damages” addresses a tension that has been obvious for decades, but usually treated as an annoyance: punitive damages are justified in public-regarding terms—punishment, deterrence, and condemnation—yet delivered through private litigation and typically paid to a single plaintiff. The doctrinal rhetoric often tracks conduct broad in scope, such as systematic ... ‘Punitive Damages as Societal Damages,’ by Catherine M. Sharkey
The FTC, Express Scripts, and the High Cost of Lower Copays
Nearly 17 months after the Federal Trade Commission filed suit against the nation’s three largest pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), the agency has reached a settlement with one of them: Express Scripts. The complaint alleged that PBMs harmed competition and patients by inflating insulin prices. PBMs negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical manufacturers and pharmacies on behalf ... The FTC, Express Scripts, and the High Cost of Lower Copays
Restoring the Marketplace of Ideas: Examining the Executive Order on Ending Federal Censorship
President Donald Trump has issued a slew of executive orders (EOs) in his first week back in office. But one that caught my attention was the EO titled “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship.” The EO places limits on what federal officials in the executive branch can do in relation to speech, including ... Restoring the Marketplace of Ideas: Examining the Executive Order on Ending Federal Censorship
Antitrust at the Agencies: PBM Madness at the FTC, Part 2
As I noted in my last post, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced Sept. 20 that it had filed a complaint: against the three largest prescription drug benefit managers (PBMs)—Caremark Rx, Express Scripts (ESI), and OptumRx—and their affiliated group purchasing organizations (GPOs) for engaging in anticompetitive and unfair rebating practices that have artificially inflated the ... Antitrust at the Agencies: PBM Madness at the FTC, Part 2
The FTC Takes On Pharmaceutical Benefit Managers
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced Sept. 20 that it was suing the three largest pharmaceutical benefit managers (PBMs)—Caremark Rx, Express Scripts (ESI), and Optum—alleging competition and consumer-protection law violations. This commentary provides information on controversies surrounding the economic effects of PBMs that led up to the suit. A follow-up commentary will assess the lawsuit ... The FTC Takes On Pharmaceutical Benefit Managers
The FTC Case Against PBM Rebates
About a month ago, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was preparing an antitrust suit against the nation’s three largest pharmaceutical benefit managers (PBMs), the intermediaries who negotiate drug prices on behalf of insurers and who manage benefits for nearly nine in 10 insured Americans. This development followed a two-year ... The FTC Case Against PBM Rebates
Vullo and the Dangers of Government Coercion Over Speech
The U.S. Supreme Court delivered a major victory for free speech and struck a blow against government censorship-by-proxy yesterday in NRA v. Vullo: “Government officials cannot attempt to coerce private parties in order to punish or suppress views that the government disfavors.” This is a major decision, and will have implications for free speech online, ... Vullo and the Dangers of Government Coercion Over Speech
How Changing Section 230 Could Disrupt Insurance Markets
In recent years, a diverse cross-section of advocates and politicians have leveled criticisms at Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and its grant of legal immunity to interactive computer services. Proposed legislative changes to the law have been put forward by both Republicans and Democrats. It remains unclear whether Congress (or the courts) will ... How Changing Section 230 Could Disrupt Insurance Markets
