Insurance Market Regulation
is a Domestic Policy centric issueDo you support Insurance Market Regulation? Yes | No
Rapidly rising insurance rates and mounting concerns over insurance company fraud have contributed to calls for greater insurance market regulation to preempt a possible national crises. Once such proposal would create a national non-profit insurance fund.
- Background: High rates and Fraud, proposals for regulation and national insurance schemes
- Debate: Public v Private market efficiency
- Country Comparison: Affluent countries, UK
- Recent Legislation:
- Natural disasters and the rising costs of health care have led insurance companies to raise their premiums at alarming rates or withdraw from insurance markets completely. These changes have made insurance unfordable or unavailable for consumers. Without affordable insurance, the population is at risk of incurring severe personal debt that has the potential to destabilize regional economies [source="Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz" link="http://www.house.gov/list/hearing/fl20_schultz/August2006.html"].
- Greater regulation of private insurance companies has been proposed.
- Another proposals involves a federally run national insurance program. With only administrative costs, the pool of monies would be used to recover from natural disasters like the Katrina Hurricane and the Northridge Earthquake in short order and avoid the fight policy semantics of the profit focused private insurance companies. Monies not used for administrative costs would be in the pool, with public open accounting of rates and claims, etc. Advocates of this solution expect that this plan will drastically reduce premiums in many sectors.
- The National Flood Insurance Program under F.E.M.A. is a prime example of federal insurance program model, that could be expanded to all forms of insurance (including health care).
- Insurance Company Corruption is at an all time high, yet they are left unrestrained to charge whatever they can, and deny whatever claims the can. Most are not publicly traded and so do not have to report in detail the huge amounts of money they take in, or where the money goes.
- Private markets are always more efficient than government enterprises.
- All of the world's affluent countries have national insurance programs of various kinds.
- UK's National Insurance
