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 percentage of the health care costs paid by the health insurance company, which is usually 80% above the insured's deductible up to a dollar amount of approximately $5000. ...
Amendment that modifies the federal flood insurance program by providing relocation and acquisition coverage for structures in imminent danger from an encroaching shoreline. This amendment ...
Form of state rating law that requires prior approval of property and casualty insurance premiums by the state insurance department for certain changes. Here, a state generally allows new ...
Extra life insurance benefit found in the family income policy, family income rider, family MAINTENANCE POLICY, and FAMILY POLICY payable to the BENEFICIARY should the insured die within a ...
Form that covers exposures associated with efforts to operate a business that is damaged by a peril such as fire. For example, a special electrical generator may have to be purchased in the ...
Date of issue of the policy. ...
Law that provided for federal crime insurance. Because private insurance is not available for business owners and residents of certain high-crime areas, the act provides that the federal ...
Accident policy that covers a traveler for a single trip on an airplane or other common carrier. The name comes from its origin as part of the ticket or ticket stub, but these policies are ...
Important 1944 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the insurance business constituted interstate commerce and was thus subject to the SHERMAN antitrust act. This decision came in U.S. v. ...
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