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
Wrong against the government or society as a whole. An individual representing the state (usually the district attorney) brings an action on behalf of the state against an individual (s) or ...
Type of livestock insurance that covers for cattle and sheep on the range from October 1 to May 1 in the Western states. Perils insured against are the weather, including freezing; most ...
Voluntary state insurance programs that aid small businesses in acquiring insurance coverages when there are impediments to obtaining the coverage. ...
Federal law passed in 1920 that allows any seaman incurring bodily injury as the result of the performance of one or more functions of the job to bring a suit for damages against the ...
Arrangement whereby the insured pays the insurance company a relatively small monthly premium payment. In exchange for this premium payment, the insurance company processes and pays claims ...
Evaluation of the demographic characteristics of the entire group (such as age, sex, morbidity, mortality), as opposed to the evaluation of individuals in that group. ...
Total value of all goods and services produced by companies located in the United States as well as that produced by United States companies whose production facilities are outside the ...
Use of a life insurance policy dividend by the owner of a participating policy. Here the policy dividend is left with the insurance company to accumulate at a guaranteed minimum interest ...
Specialist whose task is to place insurance with the specialized syndicates that underwrite particular risks at Lloyd's of London. ...
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