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
Performance of managerial and clerical functions related to an employee benefit insurance plan by an individual or committee that is not an original party to the benefit plan. In selecting ...
Insurance arrangement in which all employees of a given business firm are accepted into a plan regardless of their physical condition. The employee cannot be required to take a physical ...
Type of commercial form that provides coverage for business vehicles regardless of whether they are owned, leased, hired, or borrowed. The form's coverages are divided into the following ...
Insurance that follows an insured property. ...
Liability insurance exception for pollution coverage that is not both sudden and accidental from the insured's standpoint. As a result of the damage suits from such incidents as the ...
Component of necessary coverage determined by the "needs approach" to life insurance for a family. It is intended to cover last-minute expenses as well as those that surface after the death ...
Evidence of a temporary contract obliging a life or health insurance company to provide coverage as long as a premium accompanies an acceptable application. This gives the company time to ...
Term or whole life policy with a face value that increases over time. ...
Person who has been authorized by the insurance company to pay a loss (s) incurred by the insured. ...
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