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
Found under the "Exceptions and Exclusions Section for All Medical Benefits" in many health insurance policies that exclude: complications arising from elective, nontherapeutic voluntary ...
Agreement by the insurance company to keep the universal life insurance policy in force, even if the cash value becomes zero or less than zero, provided that a specified minimum ...
Amount of uncertainty in a given situation. Probability that actual experience will be different from what is expected. ...
Employee of a state insurance department who audits statements of insurance companies to determine their continued solvency. ...
Compensation in which an insurance agent's fee for the sale of a policy is the same year after year. Most life insurance companies pay a high first year commission and lower commissions in ...
Coverage in which the face amount of a policy remains uniform, neither increasing nor decreasing for as long as the policy is in force. ...
Annual premium expressed on a proportionate basis such as monthly, quarterly, or semiannually. ...
Chart showing rate of death at each age in terms of number of deaths per thousand. ...
Index that reflects changes in industrial output by manufacturers, mines, electric utilities, and natural gas utilities. This is a monthly index published by the Federal Reserve. ...
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