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
Investment risk associated with the psychology of the market in that emotions affect the price of a company's stock that, in most instances, has nothing to do with the current or potential ...
Health insurance coverage for eye examinations, and eyeglass or contact lens prescriptions. ...
Average earned monthly income of the insured wage earner after regular earned income has been interrupted or terminated because of illness, sickness, or accident. This income amount is ...
Procedure for offering reduced auto insurance rates to drivers with good records, and imposing higher rates on bad drivers. Typically, premiums are weighted under a system that assigns ...
Mathematical combination of one-year term insurance and one-year deferred permanent insurance such that no reserve has to be set up for the first year the policy is in force and allowance ...
Legal power of the commissioner of Internal Revenue to approve any classification of employees that does not discriminate in favor of a prohibited group. Such approval is necessary before a ...
Means of funding permitted under the employee retirement income security act of 1974 (ERISA). The administrator of a pension plan can comply with required minimum funding standards by ...
Contract providing a monthly income benefit to members of a group of employees. A group annuity has the same characteristics as an individual annuity, except that it is underwritten on a ...
Classification of occupations according to the degree of risk inherent in that occupation. ...
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