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
Amount of insurance coverage that an insurance company is willing to write on a given category of business. ...
Term describing illness, sickness, or disability incurred by the insured such that the insured is restricted to his or her home, a hospital, or a nursing home. Many health insurance ...
Extent of the loss caused by accidents. Used in predicting the dollar amount of losses upon which the premiums are based. ...
Present value of a future sum of money to be paid at a stipulated future date. ...
Insurance coverage for pitfalls associated with travel. The coverage can be classified as follows: Trip Cancellation the travelers) must cancel the trip because of unforeseen circumstances ...
Requirement that an individual must withdraw a minimum sum annually from retirement savings that have accumulated on a tax-deferred basis. This withdrawal must begin by April 1 of the year ...
Membership organization of state insurance commissioners. One of its goals is to promote uniformity of state regulation and legislation as it concerns the insurance industry. The NAIC ...
Organization of property insurance companies whose goal is to prevent and uncover fraudulent automobile fire and theft claims. ...
Failure to act with the legally required degree of care for others, resulting in harm to them. ...
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