Q: How Does This Whole System Work?

  • We believe it is very important for the subcommittee, and other committees in Congress with jurisdiction over insurance, to have a sound understanding of how our industry operates... (p26)

--  Statement of Gary E. Hughes, Executive Vice President & General Counsel, American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI)

2011 0728 and 1025 - GOV (House) - Insurance Oversight: Policy Implications for U.S. Consumers, Businesses and Jobs, Judy Biggert (R-IL) - [PDF-285p, VIDEO-?]

  • Insurance is not a product like a can of peas.  (p23)

--  J. Robert Hunter, Director of Insurance, Consumer Federation of America 

2003 1022 - GOV (Senate) - Federal Involvement in the Regulation of the Insurance Industry, (CSPAN) - Insurance Industry Regulation, John McCain (R-AZ)

  • On the domestic front, FIO has a dual focus – on both the federal government and the States.
  • NAIFA believes it is critical that FIO use its role as the insurance expert in the federal regulatory structure to...
    • (a) educate all levels of the federal government – from the Treasury Department, to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), to the Department of Labor (DOL) – about the insurance industry, how it works, and how it interacts with other financial sectors;

2011 1216 - Letter - NAIFA to FIO (Federal Insurance Office) - [link]

  • Docket Number: 2011-26776 - Re: Public Input on the Report to Congress on How to Modernize and Improve the System of Insurance Regulation in the United States

It is hard to fix a system that has not been analyzed.  (p14)

--  J. Robert Hunter, Director of Insurance, Consumer Federation of America (CFA)

2003 0506 - GOV (House) - Increasing the Effectiveness of State Consumer Protection, Sue W. Kelly (R-NY)  ---  [BonkNote]

  • (p24) - Ed Royce (R-CA): That takes me to the theme of Harry Markopolos’ testimony here that I think riveted everyone when he said that it was his belief that the SEC was over-lawyered.
    • He noted, and then subsequently the SEC officials affirmed it, he noted there was a fundamental lack of understanding of the more intricate aspects of our financial markets within the SEC which prevented the SEC year after year from uncovering the Madoff incident.
    • I do think Mr. Markopolos is on to something ...that part of their problem was the ....lack of understanding of how the market works by the people who are supposed to regulate it.

2009 1006 - GOV (House) - Capital Markets Regulatory Reform: Strengthening Investor Protection, Enhancing Oversight of Private Pools of Capital, And Creating a National Insurance Office - [PDF-325p, 

  • John LaFalce (D-NY) - During the course of our product liability travails, we ascertained that there were very few people within the Federal Government with an understanding of the insurance industry. This lack of knowledgeability is illustrated by an article appearing this past Monday in the Wall Street Journal which recounted how the Department of Justice lost a taxation case involving a life insurance company in the U.S. Supreme Court as a result of its misunderstanding of the functioning of life insurance companies.
    • A staff memo, which referred to the decision as " demonstrably incorrect" stated:
      • "It appears that for many years the workings of the life insurance business have been misunderstood by those at the [Internal Revenue Service and Justice Department] associated with the question."
    • This past Tuesday, the Government Accounting Office released a survey it undertook of the functionings of the various State insurance regulatory bodies. That study raised serious questions as to the efficacy of State regulation as it is currently conducted. And I note parenthetically that the GAO report will be the subject of a hearing before this subcommittee on October 22. 
  • Given the veil of ignorance shrouding the business of insurance, this subcommittee believes that it is imperative to ascertain whether small businesses are being treated fairly in the insurance marketplace. To this end, we are attempting at this hearing to ascertain the types of problems that small businesses may be encountering.
  • We have with us this morning several witnesses who, hopefully, will be able to provide us some indication as to where the subcommittee should direct its future efforts.

1979 1011 and 1022 - GOV (House) - Small Business Problems with Insurance - Part 1, John LaFalce (D-NY)  ---  [BonkNote]

 

  • But nowhere has there been a serious, full dress attempt to re-define the modern American insurance transaction as a sui generis matter.
  • Perhaps the job is too big, or too dull.

1950 - LR -The Special Nature of the Insurance Contract: A Few Suggestion for Further Study, by Franklin M. Schultz - 15p