Note to WA agents and brokers

In October, our office will launch a new search feature on our website. The new tool will help consumers look for an agent or broker in their area.

Here's the critical part: The results will provide consumers with your contact information, specifically your business address and phone number. And as things stand now,  a lot of agents and brokers only use their residential addresses -- which we will NOT list in this new tool -- as their primary point of contact with us. They simply leave the business address field blank. But that means that the new search tool won't list them when a consumer searches for an agent or broker by city.

To learn more, see this page. To log in to your online account and update your licensing business address record to be sure that consumers can find you, just click here.

Questions? We're at 360-725-7144 or licinfo@oic.wa.gov.

Obesity rankings, by state...

Just in time for lunch, a new report pegs Washington as the 28th fattest state in America, with more than 1/4 of the state's residents considered obese.

States with the worst rankings tended to be in the Southeast (Mississippi, where more than 1 out of every 3 people is obese, was the worst, followed by Alabama, Tennessee, West Virginia and Louisiana.) the report was done by the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The data is pretty worrisome, with several indicators suggesting that America's weight problems are getting significantly worse.

Here's a WebMD story that summarizes the findings and includes the ranking of the states.

Statewide Poverty Action Network recognizes Kreidler for work opposing credit scoring

Washington's Statewide Poverty Action Network has awarded Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler a "2010 Leadership Award" for his repeated efforts to ban the use of credit scoring by insurers.

At Kreidler's urging, state lawmakers in 2002 and then-Gov. Gary Locke approved some of the nation's strongest limits on the controversial practice. As a result, insurance companies in Washington cannot cancel or decide not to renew someone's coverage due solely to credit score. They also cannot use certain credit-related factors to deny coverage or set rates, such as the number of credit inquiries.

Nonetheless, most insurers today still use credit as a key factor in setting rates.

Kreidler maintains that the practice is inherently unfair and penalizes drivers, for example, due to factors that have nothing to do with how they drive. Earlier this year, he called for legislation flatly banning credit scoring by insurers. The bill, opposed by the insurance industry, did not pass.

"Nonetheless, profiling the fact that this practice inappropriately disadvantages people by income will continue to be a focus of this office," said Kreidler.