AN ACT Relating to travel insurance;
SB 6248 creates a comprehensive Washington statutory framework for travel insurance and related travel protection products. The bill defines key terms such as travel insurance, travel assistance services, cancellation fee waivers, travel protection plans, travel retailers, travel administrators, and limited lines travel insurance producers. It authorizes the insurance commissioner to license limited lines travel insurance producers, sets conditions for travel retailers to offer and disseminate travel insurance under a producer’s authority, and establishes training, disclosure, registration, and recordkeeping requirements for those entities.
The bill also specifies how travel insurance is regulated for premium tax, rate and form filing, and market conduct purposes. It treats travel insurance as inland marine for rates and forms, allows certain sickness, accident, disability, and death coverages to be filed under accident and health or inland marine lines, and requires insurers to report only the portion of premiums attributable to travel insurance, not noninsurance services. It further addresses how combined travel protection plans may be marketed, requires clear consumer disclosures, and prohibits negative-option sales and marketing blanket travel insurance as free. The bill adds unfair trade practice provisions for selling policies that can never result in payment of claims and for misrepresenting blanket travel insurance as free.
In state law terms, SB 6248 amends multiple sections of the insurance code and adds a new chapter to Title 48 RCW devoted specifically to travel insurance. It also creates related amendments to licensing and unfair trade practice provisions to align existing insurance regulations with the new travel insurance chapter. The commissioner is given rulemaking authority to implement the chapter and repeal inconsistent rules. The bill’s effective date is staged, with most provisions taking effect in June 2026 and some sections taking effect earlier in January 2026.
The overall sentiment around the bill appears strongly favorable and largely noncontroversial. It passed the Senate committee unanimously, passed the Senate floor with only one no vote, and then passed the House committee and House floor unanimously. That voting pattern suggests broad bipartisan support for clarifying and modernizing the rules governing travel insurance sales and consumer disclosures.
The main points of potential contention are limited and appear to center on consumer protection and regulatory scope rather than the concept of travel insurance itself. The bill draws a line between insurance and noninsurance travel assistance services, restricts who may sell or administer travel insurance, and imposes detailed disclosure and training requirements on travel retailers. It also explicitly prohibits certain sales practices, such as opt-out marketing and free-labeling of blanket coverage, indicating concern about misleading sales tactics and the need to prevent confusion for consumers purchasing travel-related products.
The bill creates a new chapter in Title 48 RCW governing travel insurance and amends existing insurance statutes to integrate that framework into Washington law. It establishes licensing, registration, premium tax, filing, disclosure, and enforcement rules for travel insurers, limited lines producers, travel retailers, and travel administrators, while also clarifying how travel insurance and travel protection plans are classified and marketed. The measure affects insurers, travel businesses, and consumers purchasing trip protection products, and it gives the insurance commissioner authority to adopt implementing rules and resolve conflicts with existing insurance provisions.
The bill was received very positively throughout the legislative process. It passed the Senate committee 9-0, the Senate floor 48-1, the House Consumer Protection & Business Committee 14-0, the House Appropriations Committee 28-0, and the House floor 92-0. That record indicates broad bipartisan agreement that the bill is a useful consumer-protection and regulatory modernization measure.
There was little visible opposition in the recorded votes, and no committee transcript excerpts were provided showing substantive debate. The most likely areas of concern are the bill’s detailed regulatory requirements for travel retailers and travel administrators, the prohibition on negative-option sales, and the unfair-trade-practice treatment of certain marketing practices. Those provisions reflect a policy choice to prioritize consumer clarity and oversight over a lighter-touch market approach, but the available record does not show organized opposition to those provisions.