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
Insurance marketed through advertising in such media as newspapers, magazines, television, and radio. The mail is used to collect the application and distribute the policy. An insurance ...
Theory that the probability that two independent events will occur is equal to the probability that one independent event will occur times the probability that a second independent event ...
Failure to act with the legally required degree of care for others, resulting in harm to them. ...
Quantitative measurement of the total costs (losses, risk control costs, risk financing costs, and administration costs) associated with the risk management function, as compared to a ...
Arrangement whereby an insurance company agrees to pay specified health care service vendors a predetermined sum for providing such services to the covered individuals. ...
Coverage for motorized vehicles, each of which requires separate policies for property damage and liability exposures. Motorized vehicles are not covered under a homeowners insurance policy ...
Exception in general liability policies for all expenses associated with product recall. In recent years, there have been increasing instances of federal recalls. In addition, there have ...
Annuity modified joint life and survivorship annuity under which the income payments are reduced to one-half or two-thirds of the initial income amounts upon the death of the first ...
Annuity that guarantees that a specific sum of money will be paid in the future, usually as monthly income, to an annuitant. For example, a $1000-a-month income benefit will be paid as long ...
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