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
Same as term Original Age: insured's age at the date a term life insurance policy is issued. An original age or retroactive conversion option permits the insured to convert the term policy ...
HEALTH MAINTENANCE ORGANIZATION that restricts to a relatively small amount the number of medical providers from which an HMO member may seek services. Usually, HMO members may select the ...
Assistance program for the financially needy. Medicaid, also referred to as Title XIX of the Social Security Act, was enacted in 1965 at the same time as medicare. It is a joint ...
Policy underwritten on either a monoline primary insurance or monoline excess insurance basis that will allow the purchaser to increase the limits of liability coverage above that of ...
Coverage for the contents of a renter's home or apartment and for liability. Tenant policies are similar to homeowners insurance, except that they do not cover the structure. They do, ...
Surrender of rights by an insured against the third party to an insurance company that has paid a claim. ...
Monetary sum paid to an intermediary who acts as the contact between the lender (an insurance company) and the borrower. ...
Additional coverage designed to provide protection against economic losses incurred by insured wage earners when their income is interrupted or terminated because of illness, sickness, or ...
Provision that excludes from coverage under Form No. 3: flood damage, except if the flood causes a fire, explosion, or theft; water damage from the backup of sewers; earthquake, except if ...
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