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
Endorsement to a property insurance policy providing all risks coverage for insured property. Excluded properties include residences, farms, and manufacturing properties. This endorsement ...
Assistance program for the financially needy. Medicaid, also referred to as Title XIX of the Social Security Act, was enacted in 1965 at the same time as medicare. It is a joint ...
Fee charged to a policyowner when a life insurance policy or annuity is surrendered for its cash value. This fee reflects insurance company expenses incurred by placing the policy on its ...
In insurance, company revenues from underwriting and investment. Insurance companies make money first, by underwriting good risks so that their premium dollars cover claims losses and ...
Portion of the death benefit in a life insurance policy paid upon the insured being diagnosed as having a terminal illness that will result in death within a year. ...
Group appointed by President Nixon in 1971 to study workers compensation laws under the authorization of the occupational safety and health act (OSHA). It issued sweeping recommendations to ...
Legal status giving an insurance company all rights to an insured's property. The abandonment clause is usually found in marine insurance and not in other property insurance policies such ...
Physical, moral, or financial circumstance of a life insurance applicant that sets him or her apart from a physically, morally, and financially sound standard applicant. The underwriting ...
Legal procedure through which a court determines the rightful claimant (of two or more claimants making the same claim) against a third party. Insurance companies use interpleader if claims ...
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