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
Information generated by the medical information bureau (MIB) and made available to member companies concerning medical information of applicants for life and health insurance. Member ...
Type of court bond filed on behalf of the defendant and used to release assets to him or her that have been attached pending a court decision. ...
Assets permitted by state law to be included in an insurance company's annual statement. These assets are an important factor when regulators measure insurance company solvency. They ...
Basic requirements of an employee benefit insurance plan such as minimum age and years of service with an employer. ...
Coverage in the event an employee is kidnapped from an insured business's premises and forced to return to aid a criminal in a theft. ...
Deductible eliminated through the payment of an additional premium, resulting in first-dollar coverage under the policy. ...
Coverage usually provided for large businesses in four areas: Section I (Property) The building (s) and contents are covered against either any peril (ALL RISKS basis) or only perils listed ...
Mathematical premise stating that the greater the number of exposures, (1) the more accurate the prediction; (2) the less the deviation of the actual losses from the expected losses (X - x ...
Fund that comes into existence because premiums for ordinary life insurance policies in their early years are higher than necessary for the pure cost of protection. These excess premiums, ...
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