Washington insurance laws
What Washington has enacted on insurance, what each law requires, and what the bills still moving would do. Washington is one of 51 states that enacted an insurance law in the 2025 and 2026 sessions.
8 new Washington laws take effect in 2027
- Bills in scope
- 67bills in scope
- Past committee
- 44past committee
- Most recent action
- 24 March 2026most recent action
Insurance laws enacted in Washington
19 insurance laws enacted in the Washington Legislature in the 2025 and 2026 sessions, newest first. Each links to the legislature's own page.
What it requires: The department of labor and industries must establish minimum standards for health care providers treating injured workers and create a provider network. Network providers must follow evidence-based coverage decisions and treatment guidelines when medically appropriate. Employers are prohibited from requiring or inducing injured workers to seek treatment from specific providers.
Workers' compensation, surety and specialty lines
- SB 5395Making improvements to transparency and accountability in the prior authorization determination process.Enacted 23 March 2026
What it requires: Carriers, managed care organizations, and health plans must make prior authorization decisions within specified timeframes: three calendar days for electronic standard requests, one calendar day for electronic expedited requests. Only licensed physicians or health professionals may deny requests based on medical necessity. Artificial intelligence cannot be the sole means to deny, delay, or modify care.
Health coverage and plan regulation
What it requires: The department of labor and industries must publish the actuarially indicated rate for each risk classification as part of its proposed premium rates. If the director limits the maximum premium rate increase for any risk classification below actuarial principles, the department must publish the limited classifications, their proposed rates, what rates would have been under actuarial principles, and the premium rate increases imposed on other risk classes.
Workers' compensation, surety and specialty lines
What it requires: Travel insurers must pay premium tax on travel insurance premiums from Washington residents. Limited lines travel insurance producers must register travel retailers, maintain compliance records, and ensure employee training. Travel retailers and producers must provide consumers with material terms, claims processes, cancellation procedures, and insurer contact information before purchase.
Licensing, solvency and market conduct
- HB 2604Transferring ownership of a vehicle to an insurer under certain circumstances.Enacted 18 March 2026
What it requires: The registered owner or legal owner must report vehicle destruction to the department within 15 days and submit the certificate of title marked "DESTROYED." Insurance companies or self-insurers must report total loss vehicles within 15 days after settlement claim. A limited power of attorney for transferring vehicle ownership to an insurer does not require notarization and may be signed electronically.
Auto insurance
- HB 2428Preventing unintentional lapses and cancellations of life insurance policies.Takes effect 1 January 2027
What it requires: Insurers must send written notice of possible termination at least 30 days before coverage lapses due to nonpayment. Insurers must notify applicants of the right to designate a third party to receive lapse notices and must send notices to any designated third party. These requirements apply to individual life insurance policies issued on or after January 1, 2027, except group policies, monthly-payment policies, and term policies of one year or less.
Life insurance and annuities
- HB 2441Concerning medical insurance premium reimbursements for surviving spouses of line of duty deaths.Enacted 14 March 2026
What it requires: The retirement allowance paid to surviving spouses, domestic partners, and dependent children of members killed in the course of employment must include reimbursement for medical insurance premium payments from the date of the member's death through determination of line of duty death, including employer-provided insurance, COBRA, and Medicare Parts A and B.
Health coverage and plan regulation
- HB 2304Increasing the supply of condominiums by expanding the types of condominium buildings that may be subject to an express warranty of quality and express warranty insurance coverage.Enacted 9 March 2026
What it requires: Declarants and dealers of condominium units in buildings with 12 or fewer units and specified story limits must provide express warranty of quality and express warranty insurance coverage meeting stated requirements, rather than being subject to implied warranties of quality, if the unit is an accessory dwelling unit, contains no units physically above or below others, or meets other specified building configurations.
Workers' compensation, surety and specialty lines
What it requires: Every insurer issuing or renewing an automobile insurance policy with first-party physical damage coverage on or after January 1, 2026, must include an appraisal clause allowing either the insurer or insured to demand appraisal to resolve disputes over actual cash value and amount of loss. The clause must follow specified language or language certified as at least as favorable to the insured.
Auto insurance
- SB 5807Concerning wellness incentives for public and school employee health benefit plans.Enacted 20 May 2025
What it requires: The public employees' benefits board and school employees' benefits board must cease offering the smart health program, including wellness incentives and the smart health online portal, as of January 1, 2028. Employees who earned wellness incentives by December 31, 2027 retain them for plan year 2028. No employees may earn new wellness incentives after January 1, 2028.
Health coverage and plan regulation
- SB 5463Concerning the duties of industrial insurance self-insured employers and third-party administrators.Took effect 1 January 2026
What it requires: Self-insured employers and third-party administrators must act in good faith and fair dealing with workers regarding all aspects of industrial insurance. They must not coerce workers to accept less than compensation due or fail to act in good faith regarding obligations under the title.
Workers' compensation, surety and specialty lines
- SB 5262Correcting obsolete or erroneous references in statutes administered by the insurance commissioner.Enacted 12 May 2025
What it does: Corrects obsolete or erroneous references in insurance statutes by amending fourteen RCW sections to update terminology, timelines, and procedures; repeals six defunct statutes and reports; and protects patient data in medical malpractice claims reporting.
Licensing, solvency and market conduct
- SB 5351Ensuring patient choice and access to care by prohibiting unfair and deceptive dental insurance practices.Enacted 12 May 2025
What it requires: Carriers and limited health care service contractors offering dental only plans must not deny coverage solely because procedures were performed on the same day. They may pay claims via credit card only if they notify providers of fees in advance, offer a fee-free alternative payment method, and provide clear instructions for selecting alternatives.
Health coverage and plan regulation, Licensing, solvency and market conduct
- HB 1516Conducting a study of insurance coverage options for permanently affordable homeownership units.Enacted 7 May 2025
What it does: Requires the office of the insurance commissioner to conduct a study on insurance coverage options for permanently affordable homeownership units to reduce condominium construction defect liability costs, and submit findings and recommendations to the legislature by December 31, 2026.
Property, catastrophe and climate risk
What it requires: For claims with injury or disease manifestation on or after July 1, 2026, the supervisor of industrial insurance must provide permanently totally disabled workers with one hundred percent of employer health care benefit payments and a percentage of wages excluding health care benefits based on marital and dependent status, ranging from sixty to seventy-five percent.
Workers' compensation, surety and specialty lines
- HB 1275Establishing department authority to ensure payment is received from the self-insured employer after a self-insured group or municipal employer has their self-insurer certification withdrawn.Enacted 16 April 2025
What it requires: When the director terminates a self-insured employer's self-insurer status under RCW 51.14.080, the department shall pay the decertified self-insured employer's workers' compensation obligations. The decertified self-insured employer must reimburse the department all payments made through periodic charges not less than quarterly as determined by the director.
Workers' compensation, surety and specialty lines
- HB 1842Allowing public utility districts to form, own, or use captive insurers.Enacted 16 April 2025
What it requires: Public utility districts established under Title 54 RCW may form, own, or use captive insurers in accordance with chapter 48.201 RCW. A public utility district may be a captive owner as defined in RCW 48.201.020. The act grants public utility districts authority to individually self-insure risks and jointly purchase insurance or reinsurance.
Workers' compensation, surety and specialty lines
- SB 5141Requiring that experience-rated group disability income insurers include all applicable rating factors and credibility formulas in rate manual filings with the insurance commissioner.Enacted 8 April 2025
What it requires: Experience-rated group disability income insurers must include in rate manual filings with the insurance commissioner their experience rating formulas including all applicable rating factors and credibility formulas. Such filings must be detailed enough to confirm whether a group is fully or partially credible and to allow the commissioner to replicate premium rates if given the group's experience and demographics.
Licensing, solvency and market conduct
- HB 1706Aligning the implementation of application programming interfaces for prior authorization with federal guidelines.Enacted 7 April 2025
What it requires: Carriers, health plans for public employees, and managed care organizations must establish and maintain prior authorization application programming interfaces consistent with final federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services rules published in the Federal Register. They must meet specified timeframes for prior authorization decisions: three calendar days for electronic standard requests, one calendar day for electronic expedited requests, five calendar days for nonelectronic standard requests, and two calendar days for nonelectronic expedited requests.
Health coverage and plan regulation
Insurance in Washington, by topic
Health coverage and plan regulation
21 bills, 5 enacted. Enacted in 47 states.
Workers' compensation, surety and specialty lines
19 bills, 7 enacted. Enacted in 45 states.
Licensing, solvency and market conduct
19 bills, 4 enacted. Enacted in 47 states.
Auto insurance
8 bills, 2 enacted. Enacted in 29 states.
Property, catastrophe and climate risk
3 bills, 1 enacted. Enacted in 31 states.
Life insurance and annuities
3 bills, 1 enacted. Enacted in 24 states.
AI and data in underwriting and claims
1 bill. Enacted in 12 states.
Insurance bills in Washington
The bills not yet law, furthest along first, with what each would do.
19Enacted
25Past committee
23Introduced or inactive
67 bills in scope
Past committee
25
What it would do: Amends pet insurance regulations to prohibit waiting periods for accidents, allow waiver of up to 30-day illness waiting periods via veterinary exam, prohibit cancellation based on pet age or health conditions, and require honored policies when insurers transfer policyholders between affiliated companies.
What it would do: Requires the insurance commissioner to determine by October 1, 2026 whether nonprofit health carriers have excessive surplus, defined as 100 times the minimum net worth level. If excessive, carriers must pay 10 percent of the excessive surplus to the state health care affordability account for premium assistance.
What it would do: Expands the Insurance Commissioner's enforcement powers to order restitution with 8% interest for insurance code violations, and increases the maximum fine per violation from $10,000 to $10,000 while clarifying restitution payment timelines and definitions.
What it would do: Encourages fire districts and insurance providers to collaborate on voluntary incentives for policyholders who implement wildfire mitigation best practices related to agricultural activities, including defensible space, equipment storage, water tanks, and red flag warning notification.
What it would do: Expands the definition of insurance fraud to include additional schemes like billing fraud, identity misrepresentation, and appraiser misconduct, makes it a class B felony, extends the statute of limitations to 10 years, and broadens the Insurance Commissioner's authority to investigate crimes impacting insurers and insurance consumers.
What it would do: Authorizes the Washington health benefit exchange to adopt market factor certification criteria addressing access and affordability when certifying health plans, requires consultation with the insurance commissioner and governor, and establishes procedures for developing and applying these criteria beginning plan year 2027.
What it would do: Amends RCW 41.26.510 to require that surviving spouses and dependent children of members killed in the course of employment receive reimbursement for medical insurance premiums from the date of death through determination of line of duty death status, including employer-provided insurance, COBRA, and Medicare parts A and B.
What it would do: Amends the business and occupation tax exemption for insurers to apply only to gross premiums and prepayments on which the person paid insurance premium taxes to the state, clarifying that non-insurers cannot use the exemption to avoid taxes. Repeals a separate exemption for health maintenance organizations and health care service contractors.
What it would do: Adds occupational therapists and physical therapists to the list of licensed health care providers who can serve as attending providers for workers' compensation claims in Washington, allowing injured workers to receive treatment from these providers within their scope of practice.
What it would do: Allows vehicle owners to transfer ownership to insurers using electronically signed limited powers of attorney without notarization. Requires insurers and owners to report destroyed or total loss vehicles to the department within 15 days.
What it would do: Requires the Department of Labor and Industries to publish the actuarially indicated rate for each risk classification and, if the director limits any risk class's maximum premium rate increase below actuarial principles, to disclose which classes are limited, what the rates would have been, and how the limitation affects other risk classes.
What it would do: Requires health plans issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2028 to maintain a medical loss ratio of at least 90 percent. Authorizes the insurance commissioner to require carriers to submit detailed information about medical loss ratio calculations starting with plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2027.
What it would do: Prohibits any person from soliciting, coercing, requiring, or contracting with an insured to assign post-loss property insurance benefits to that person, making such assignments void and unenforceable, with exceptions for licensed public adjusters, attorneys, financial institutions, and liability coverage.
What it would do: Creates a per-member-per-month covered lives assessment of 58 cents starting January 1, 2027, on health carriers, self-funded plans, and employer-sponsored plans to fund behavioral health emergency services through a dedicated account administered by behavioral health administrative services organizations.
What it would do: Establishes a presumption that posttraumatic stress disorder is an occupational disease for correctional facility workers employed on a fully compensated basis for at least 90 consecutive days, rebuttable by preponderance of evidence, with the presumption extending up to 60 months after employment ends.
What it would do: Establishes a presumption that posttraumatic stress disorder is an occupational disease for local correctional facility workers employed on a fully compensated basis for at least 90 consecutive days, with the presumption extending up to 60 months after employment ends.
What it would do: Creates a comprehensive regulatory framework for travel insurance in Washington, establishing licensing requirements for travel insurance producers and retailers, defining coverage types and marketing standards, and classifying travel insurance as inland marine insurance for rating purposes.
What it would do: Amends workers' compensation medical care access by requiring employers to inform injured workers of provider choice rights, prohibiting employers from requiring specific providers, establishing procedures for workers unable to find network providers within distance thresholds, and authorizing the department to hire additional claims managers.
What it would do: For workers' compensation claims with injury dates on or after July 1, 2026, increases permanent total disability benefits to 60-75 percent of wages based on marital and dependent status, and requires employers to continue health care benefits or workers receive 100 percent of employer contributions.
What it would do: Establishes a presumption that posttraumatic stress disorder is an occupational disease for correctional facility workers employed on a fully compensated basis for at least 90 consecutive days, rebuttable by preponderance of evidence, extending three months per year of employment up to 60 months after termination.
What it would do: Requires group health plans and state employee health plans to cover standard fertility preservation services starting January 1, 2026, and infertility diagnosis and treatment starting January 1, 2027, including two oocyte retrievals with unlimited embryo transfers. Requires Medicaid to cover fertility preservation services without different restrictions than other medications.
What it would do: Requires experience-rated group disability income insurers to include all applicable rating factors and credibility formulas in rate manual filings with the insurance commissioner, with sufficient detail to determine group credibility and allow the commissioner to replicate premium rates.
What it would do: Requires group health plans, state employee health plans, and Medicaid to cover standard fertility preservation services starting January 1, 2026, and infertility diagnosis and treatment starting January 1, 2027, including two oocyte retrievals with unlimited embryo transfers, without different cost-sharing than other pregnancy-related benefits.
What it would do: Requires the Department of Labor & Industries to pay workers' compensation obligations for decertified self-insured employers and mandates those employers reimburse the department through quarterly charges. Authorizes the director to adopt rules governing decertified employers' continuing obligations and payment methods.
What it would do: Requires the office of the insurance commissioner to study insurers' use of credit history, credit-based insurance scores, and other rate factors in personal insurance pricing, analyzing disparate impacts by race, ethnicity, sex, socioeconomic status, and national origin, with preliminary report due December 31, 2025 and final report due September 15, 2026.
Showing the 25 furthest along of 48. Subscribers see all of them, filtered and searchable. Bill titles link to the Washington Legislature's own page.
What counts as insurance legislation
In scope: Health coverage and plan regulation; auto; property and catastrophe; life and annuities; aI and data in underwriting; workers' compensation and specialty lines; and licensing, solvency and market conduct.
Questions
Does Washington have an insurance law?
Yes. Washington enacted 19 insurance laws in the 2025 and 2026 sessions, among them SB 5847, SB 5395 and SB 6136. Each is listed on this page with what it requires.
When do Washington's insurance laws take effect?
HB 2428 on 1 January 2027, SB 5463 on 1 January 2026 and HB 1788 on 1 July 2026. The others have no single date in their text.
Which insurance bills are moving in Washington?
25 bills not yet law have passed a committee or a chamber, the furthest along HB 1078 (floor vote), HB 2073 (passed committee) and SB 5331 (floor vote).
What does Washington legislate on most in insurance?
Health coverage and plan regulation (21 bills), Workers' compensation, surety and specialty lines (19 bills) and Licensing, solvency and market conduct (19 bills).
Are these summaries reviewed by a lawyer?
No. Which bills count as Insurance bills, and the line on what each law requires or each bill would do, are drafted by software from the bill's own text and not reviewed by an attorney. Every bill links to the legislature's own record: read the text before relying on it. The list covers bills from the 2025 and 2026 sessions.
Other practice areas in Washington
- AI in Washington27
- Alcohol in Washington25
- Cannabis in Washington50
- Children's Online Safety in Washington9
- Cybersecurity in Washington2
- Data center and energy in Washington7
- Data Privacy in Washington19
- Employment in Washington163
- Healthcare in Washington181
- Intellectual Property in Washington5
- Packaging and PFAS in Washington18
- Payments and fintech in Washington11
- Rental housing in Washington26
- Tobacco and nicotine in Washington13
- Transportation in Washington17
- All jurisdictions
Insurance legislation in other jurisdictions
52 more currently hold bills in this tracker
- New Jersey539
- New York481
- Texas314
- Massachusetts246
- Connecticut230
- Louisiana214
- Maryland208
- Missouri197
- Hawaii190
- Rhode Island188
- Mississippi187
- Florida185
- West Virginia175
- Illinois174
- Virginia158
- Montana155
- Oklahoma152
- Pennsylvania152
- California146
- Michigan137
- Iowa127
- Georgia112
- Kentucky109
- Tennessee99
- Indiana93
- Arizona91
- South Carolina86
- North Carolina80
- Minnesota78
- Oregon74
- Ohio70
- Utah70
- Arkansas68
- Kansas66
- Maine66
- New Hampshire63
- Nebraska60
- New Mexico59
- Colorado56
- Nevada54
- Congress48
- Wisconsin48
- Idaho47
- Alaska38
- Alabama32
- Delaware30
- North Dakota29
- Vermont29
- South Dakota21
- District of Columbia8
- Puerto Rico6
- Wyoming4
Know when Washington's insurance law changes
An alert when a bill moves, and one report a month on what changed in every state and Congress.