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
Coverage for the employer in the event of a tort committed by an employee in the use of his or her own car while conducting business on behalf of the employer. ...
tort against another person's property, designed to detain or dispose of it in a wrongful manner. For example, wrongful selling of another person's automobile without permission would ...
Coverage against all liability exposures of a business unless specifically excluded. Coverage includes products, completed operations, premises and operations, elevators, and independent ...
Proportion of a premium allocated to pay losses, which is equivalent to (1.00 - expense ratio). ...
Loss experience of a given insured. ...
Individuals other than the crew of a ship who forcefully steal the ship and/or its cargo. This event is an insured peril under ocean marine insurance. ...
Same as term CEDE: to transfer a risk from an insurance company to a reinsurance company. ...
Amount charged to an insured that reflects expectation of loss for a covered risk; and insurance company expenses and profit. ...
Plan to control employer's health care cost through the introduction of practice guidelines or protocols for health care providers, and to improve the methods used by employers and ...
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