44-3405 Policies; text; style; arrangement; requirements; filings; certificate. - Nebraska Statutes

44-3405. Policies; text; style; arrangement; requirements; filings; certificate.(1) No policy of life insurance, sickness and accident insurance, credit life insurance, or credit accident and health insurance shall be delivered or issued for delivery in this state unless: (a) The text achieves a minimum score of forty on the Flesch reading ease test or an equivalent score on any other comparable test which has been approved by the director; (b) the policy is printed, except for specification pages, schedules, and tables, in not less than ten-point type, one-point leaded; (c) the style, arrangement, and overall appearance of the policy gives no undue prominence to any portion of the text of the policy or to any endorsements or riders; and (d) a table of contents or an index of the principal sections of the policy is provided with the policy, if the policy has more than three thousand words printed on three or fewer pages of text, or if the policy has more than three pages regardless of the number of words.(2) For the purposes of this section, a Flesch reading ease test score shall be measured by the following method: (a) For policies containing ten thousand words or less of text, the entire policy shall be analyzed. For policies containing more than ten thousand words, the readability of two two-hundred-word samples per page may be analyzed instead of the entire policy. The samples shall be separated by at least ten printed lines; (b) the number of words and sentences in the text shall be counted and the total number of words divided by the total number of sentences. The figure obtained shall be multiplied by a factor of 1.015; (c) the total number of syllables shall be counted and divided by the total number of words. The figure obtained shall be multiplied by a factor of 84.6; and (d) the sum of the figures computed under subdivisions (b) and (c) of this subsection subtracted from 206.835 equals the Flesch reading ease score for the policy.(3) For the purposes of subdivisions (2)(b), (2)(c), and (2)(d) of this section, the following procedures shall be used: A contraction, hyphenated word, or numbers and letters, when separated by spaces, shall be counted as one word; a unit of words ending with a period, semicolon, or colon, but excluding headings and captions, shall be counted as a sentence; and, a syllable means a unit of spoken language consisting of one or more letters of a word as divided by an accepted dictionary. When the dictionary shows two or more equally acceptable pronunciations of a word, the pronunciation containing fewer syllables may be used.(4) The term text as used in this section shall include all printed matter except the following: (a) The name and address of the insurer; the name, number, or title of the policy; the table of contents or index; captions and subcaptions; specification pages, schedules, or tables; and (b) any policy language which is drafted to conform to the requirements of any federal law, regulation, or agency interpretation; any policy language required by any collective-bargaining agreement; any medical terminology; any words which are defined in the policy; and any policy language required by law or regulation, if the insurer identifies the language or terminology excepted by this subsection, and certifies, in writing, that the language or terminology is entitled to be excepted by subdivision (b) of this subsection.(5) Filings subject to this section shall be accompanied by a certificate signed by an officer of the insurer stating that it meets the minimum reading ease score on the test used, or stating that the score is lower than the minimum required but should be approved in accordance with section 44-3406. To confirm the accuracy of any certification, the director may require the submission of further information to verify the certification in question.(6) Riders, endorsements, applications, and other forms made a part of the policy may be scored as separate forms or as part of the policy with which they may be used. SourceLaws 1979, LB 415, § 5.