Maloney's PRIA seeks to require insurance companies that opt into the program to offer business interruption policies that cover pandemics and other infection-related public health emergencies, using theas a model for the public-private partnership. PRIA would also create a Pandemic Risk Reinsurance Program under the Department of the Treasury so that private companies and the federal government could share fiscal responsibility for such claims. PRIA, if passed, will go into effect on Jan.
During the hearing's question and answer session, several Congress members and witnesses expressed their belief that PRIA, based on TRIA, wouldn't work as written because pandemics and terrorism are two very different kinds of events. While terrorist events are"localized, the risk itself can be spread out throughout the country… a pandemic is occurring simultaneously across the country with claims that would have to be paid out throughout the country," Kuhlmann said.
There were still others, including a number of Republican participants, who felt that deciding on insurance solutions mid-pandemic was premature. "Republicans are committed to working in a bipartisan way but as we do that, I think we need to take a step back and [not] have a preconceived outcome," Rep. Steve Stiver , one of the committee's ranking members, said in his opening remarks.
Cantrell, for her part, defended PRIA, saying that pandemic risk insurance would have been"a gamechanger" for her during COVID-19. "I understand the Pandemic Risk Insurance Act is a solution that will only cover future pandemics… but it still needs to be passed," she said.