State Supervision And Regulation
Primary responsibility for overseeing the insurance industry that has rested with individual states since 1945, after Congress passed the MCCARRAN-FERGUSON ACT (PUBLIC LAW 15). In addition to supervision and regulation, states receive taxes and fees paid by the industry that amount to several billion dollars a year. State insurance laws are administered by state insurance departments that are responsible for making certain that (1) rates are adequate, not unfairly discriminatory, and not unreasonably high, and (2) insurance companies in the state are financially sound and able to pay future claims. To this end, states set requirements for company reserves, require annual financial statements, and examine company books. Each state has an insurance commissioner or superintendent who is either elected or appointed by the governor, with responsibility for investigating company practices, approving rates and policy forms, and ordering liquidation of insolvent insurers. The NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF INSURANCE COMMISSIONERS (NAIC) has drafted model legislation and worked for policy uniformity, but regulations vary widely from state to state.
Whether insurers should be regulated by the states or the federal government remains at issue, but so far insurers and the NAIC lobbying have been effective in resisting federal regulation. Nevertheless, the federal government has a profound effect on the insurance industry through its taxes and a variety of regulations.
Popular Insurance Terms
Plan to control employer's health care cost through the introduction of practice guidelines or protocols for health care providers, and to improve the methods used by employers and ...
Termination date of coverage as indicated on the insurance policy. ...
Coverage for small groups that cannot meet the underwriting standards of true group insurance. Even though the franchise insurance covers an entire group, individual policies are written on ...
Type of organization of property and casualty insurance companies whose objective is to share information on fraudulent claims, handle claims in an expeditious manner, and disseminate ...
Independent agent membership group, originally mutual agents but today open to both mutual and stock agents. Association views are presented both nationally and locally on insurance ...
Payments in a defined benefit plan. Benefits are allocated to the pension plan participants as premiums are received by the insurance company. Since the benefits purchased are paid up, the ...
Trust in which the trustee distributes capital and income to the beneficiaries of the trust according to their economic needs. ...
Addition to a life insurance policy stating that when an insured becomes disabled for at least six months, premiums due are waived. Depending on the rider, the insured may begin to receive ...
Table used, among other purposes, to determine monthly Social Security benefit for a retired or disabled worker and his or her dependents. The average monthly wage (AMW) of the worker is ...
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