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
Government health care program in several European countries that has been proposed in various forms for the U.S., to be administered by the federal government. Plan A would cover all U.S. ...
Condition for inland marine liability insurance coverage that states a loss or claim must occur in the policy territory. Policy territory for a liability policy includes the U.S., its ...
Form that covers exposures associated with efforts to operate a business that is damaged by a peril such as fire. For example, a special electrical generator may have to be purchased in the ...
Part of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 that permits medicare recipients to select coverage among various private health care plans to include HMOS, PPOS, POINT-of-SERVICE (POS), MEDICAL ...
Provision in insurance policies that states the deductible. ...
Person for whom the trust was created and who receives the benefits thereof. In many instances a trust is established to prevent the careless exhaustion of an estate. For example, the ...
act that prohibits employers from requiring employees to retire at age 70. Also, the act prohibits EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLANS from discriminating against employees in the 40 to 70 age group ...
Coverage for a shipper (owner/sender) for property damage or loss of goods in transit through the post office. A trip transit insurance policy specifically excludes coverages on property ...
tort against another person's property, designed to detain or dispose of it in a wrongful manner. For example, wrongful selling of another person's automobile without permission would ...
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