When you think “YouTube,” odds are you think of clever or wacky videos. Odds are you don't think about reinsurance.

But a group opposed to a proposed tax on certain reinsurance transactions has taken to the video-sharing website to make its case to the public.

The Washington-based Coalition for Competitive Insurance Rates recently posted a video explaining reinsurance on the site. The group, which counts the Risk & Insurance Management Society Inc. among its members, wants to prevent H.R. 3424 from becoming law. The bill would amend the Internal Revenue Code to disallow the federal tax deduction for certain reinsurance premiums.

“Like their customers, insurance companies have to buy insurance to manage their risks,” says an off-screen narrator, who explains that insurers buy their coverage from reinsurers. The narrator further explains that reinsurers help keep consumers' insurance rates down.

But H.R. 3424 would “attack this necessary risk-sharing function,” says the video's narrator, who warns of higher costs to consumers as the word “tax” appears at every link in the diagram. The narrator goes on to explain how foreign insurers and reinsurers have covered a variety of U.S. disasters.

The video might not be as catchy as those featuring pets and babies, but its creators obviously are counting on it to have a greater impact than any cute pet trick in the halls of Congress.

Watch the video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xGHj1yoVnY or just search for a video called “The New Insurance Tax” at www.youtube.com.

As of last Friday, it had been viewed more than 8,000 times.