[/floatr]PR-USA: ACLI Response to Japan Post Insurance's New Product Application
Japan Post Insurance (JPI) applied for approval of a cancer insurance product on March 19, that will directly compete with those offered by U.S. and other private sector insurers. The application comes despite repeated efforts by the U.S. government and both foreign and domestic industry participants to point out that JPI continues to have regulatory and other advantages over its strictly regulated private sector counterparts..."A level playing field simply doesn't exist," ACLI President and CEO Frank Keating stated. "We are particularly concerned by the statements of Minister Hatoyama, whose Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications -- JPI's former parent ministry -- is responsible with the Financial Services Agency for evaluating and ultimately passing on JPI's application." Hatoyama was quoted March 19 as saying, "By all means, I would like to approve sales of the cancer insurance... I want this from the bottom of my heart." The statement was made before the agency had even engaged in evaluating JPI's application. According to Keating, "It is both revealing and genuinely disturbing that the regulator set up by law to review the application should exhibit no regard for even the pretense of impartiality. It demonstrates that the existing regulatory process clearly favors JPI. Just as troubling is the Minister's public expression that the issues involved in processing JPI's application, which implicate the depth of Japan's bilateral and GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services) commitments to national treatment, are 'not for other countries to object to.' Given Japan's promises, this is an outrageous statement"...more...
