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
Judicial rule of evidence under which no reduction in damages awarded by a court is allowed for bodily injury, sickness, illness, or accident merely because the plaintiff has other ...
Model state law of the NAIC setting general standards for group life insurance contracts. It specifies which types of organizations can sponsor group life insurance plans and outlines the ...
Condition that results from injury or disease that is not job related. Workers compensation applies to employees disabled by on-the-job injuries or disease. In addition, five states require ...
Sale of life insurance policies through vending machines. This method of distribution is generally limited to travel accident insurance, supplemental health or disability policies, or life ...
Insurance policy designed to provide coverage for the deductible amount and the coinsurance amount required to be paid by the medicare recipient. Some of these policies will also continue ...
Arrangement, often funded by life insurance, to continue an employee's salary in the form of payments to a beneficiary for a certain period after the employee's death. The employer itself ...
Same as term Material Misrepresentation: falsification of a material fact in such a manner that, had the insurance company known the truth, it would not have insured the risk. A material ...
Legislation that raised taxes on life insurers and further defined life insurance. Because the tax equity and financial responsibility act of 1982 and 1983 (TEFRA) failed to raise the ...
Retirement plan for an individual based on a single contract with a benefit based on current earnings, as if they will remain static until normal retirement age. As the earnings of the plan ...
Have a question or comment?
We're here to help.