There was one piece of legislation that got full bipartisan support in Harrisburg this week, and made progress in the state house and senate– and that was an update to public adjuster laws.
Erie’s Rep. Bob Merski was the prime sponsor for HB 1972, which passed out of the House Insurance Committee this week. Public adjustors are people who will file claims and fight with insurance agencies on behalf of clients. In turn, they get a portion of the money that their client gets from their claim.
Merski said there were some adjustors who were price gouging consumers, with rates like 25%. The public adjuster industry also had some insurance law updates they wanted to see from Pennsylvania.
“There were a few bad actors in the private adjuster field, and the industry itself wanted to self-police,” Merski said. “But we wanted to make sure that consumers were not being gouged.”
Merski’s house bill passed out of the house committee with full bipartisan support. Over in the senate, a mirror piece of legislation also passed committee with full support.