Las Vegas Sun

June 3, 2012

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SUN EDITORIAL:

Lake Tahoe schmooze fest

State insurance regulators to get cozy with companies they’re supposed to regulate

Thursday, Sept. 10, 2009 | 2:08 a.m.

The mission of the Nevada Insurance Division is to “protect the rights of Nevada consumers in dealing with the insurance industry and to ensure the financial solvency of the insurers.” To do this, the division is to advance a “sound regulatory environment that is responsive to the insurance needs in Nevada.”

With the blessing of Gov. Jim Gibbons, though, the division has chosen to abandon this mission and stick it to consumers.

As reported Wednesday by David McGrath Schwartz in the Las Vegas Sun, the division tonight is scheduled to host a cruise on Lake Tahoe that will give insurance company representatives an opportunity to schmooze in a cozy environment with the very division employees who are supposed to regulate them. How convenient for the insurers.

This harebrained scheme will be followed up Friday at the Harveys Lake Tahoe resort, where the insurers will be able to do more elbow rubbing with Insurance Commissioner Scott Kipper and his staff at an event dubbed State of Nevada Insurance Industry Day. The event, financed by the insurance industry, was advertised on a flier that describes it as an “All Access” pass.

Where is the access for consumers?

Kipper had the nerve to defend these outlandish events, saying: “This is part of being a business-friendly environment.” Is that ever an understatement.

There was also this gem from Gibbons spokesman Dan Burns: “The governor wants an open and transparent relationship between government regulators and industries they regulate.”

Did we mention that the soiree on the lake, costing $65 per participant, is a dinner-dance cruise?

Now that’s transparency.

Kipper, who took over as insurance commissioner in January, clearly hasn’t read the division’s mission statement. Had he done so, he never would have signed off on an activity that looks and smells like a junket.

Do you suppose regulators will be thinking about consumers as they munch on their entrees and appetizers with insurance executives aboard the paddle wheel MS Dixie?

Not a chance, thanks to Kipper, Gibbons and Co.

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