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
Method of depreciating an asset in which its useful life is divided into an appropriate number of years (or other periods), the final salvage value is deducted, and the asset is written off ...
Payment by the insurance company to the insured for the actual expenses incurred by the insured, such as medical expenses. ...
Contributions to a pension plan on a fixed basis according to a formula, with variable benefits. Contributions can be made under an allocated funding instrument (paid to an insurance ...
Transaction by a tax-exempt organization with a person from inside the organization (disqualified person) that provides an economic benefit to that person that is in excess of the value of ...
Type of inland marine insurance that provides coverage for jewels, watches, gold, silver, platinum, pearls, precious and semiprecious stones. Property can be owned by the insured jeweler, ...
Modification of the major medical insurance policy that provides coverage for the terminating employee who otherwise would not be covered by a health insurance policy. Usually, this ...
Assembly of people formed only for obtaining group insurance. Such a group is uninsurable and violates underwriting principles concerning group insurance. ...
Real property (structure (s) attached to the land) that is occupied and/or is under the care, custody, or control of an individual, individuals, or an organization for which an insurance ...
State law that stipulates the establishment of required reserves for claims made basis liability coverage contracts, removes the excess statutory reserves, and directs that all amounts that ...
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