Earlier this year in American Insurance Association v. Garamendi, the U.S. Supreme Court disallowed efforts by the State of California, through the Department of Insurance, to compel the existing successors of various European insurers to disclose information concerning life insurance policies issued between 1920 and 1945 to persons who became victims of the Holocaust. The Court reasoned that Holocaust reparations issues and the recovery of victims' property are matters of foreign policy, as to which the federal government has exclusive power to act and in which the states should not interfere.
At the time of the decision, Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi was highly critical, and he has since sought action by Congress in this area. (The Supreme Court's opinion suggests that there is room for congressional action.)
The issue has now come before that House Government Reform Committee, which received testimony from Lawrence Eagleburger, Secretary of State in the first Bush administration and now chair of the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims (ICHEIC). Business Insurance reports Eagleburger's view that disclosure of the sort California sought to require would actually make matters worse for victims and their relatives:
The former secretary of state said that as much as he understands the purpose of the two bills, 'I do not understand how they will solve the problem.' In fact, he said, requiring insurers to publish the names of millions of policyholders who may or may not have been Holocaust victims or have any tie to the Holocaust could make the process even slower.
The New York Times also reports on the hearing, including the disclosure by Eagleburger that "his organization had spent 60 percent more for operations than it had persuaded insurers to pay in claims." (ICHEIC is reported to have cost $56 million thus far, and to have obtained offers of claims payments of only $35 million.)
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