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
Coverage in liability insurance for a ship owner in the event of collision with another ship. A running down clause, when added to basic hull marine insurance, protects against liability ...
Mortality table used to calculate the legal reserve and life insurance policy cash surrender values. ...
Liability incurred by a parent by reason of a tort committed by his or her minor child. ...
Agreement in which spouse X (the spouse who is mandated by the court to make alimony and/or child support payments to spouse Y) must put assets (the principal) in a trust, from which the ...
Decrease in value of property as the result of technological advancement and/or changing social mores. This factor is used to measure the amount of depreciation in determining the actual ...
Coverage under a homeowners insurance policy in the event that a credit card is fraudulently used or altered. Fraud includes theft and the unauthorized use of a credit card. ...
Life insurance in which the debit system is used to collect premiums on a monthly basis. ...
Same as term Commercial Health Insurance: coverage that provides two types of benefits, disability income (DI) and medical expenses. Sold by insurance companies whose business objective is ...
Approach that maintains injury or sickness begins when it is first detected by an obvious appearance. This argument is used in determining if liability insurance is afforded in a particular ...
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