Does every state need its own Department of Insurance?

Insurance is a slightly nonstandard business in that all the major regulatory functions are left to the individual US states. Federal government has decided to abandon its normal role as the regulator of business to protect the consumers' rights. Such regulation as does exist is down to the political climate in each state and the will of the lawmakers to take on the economic power of the insurance industry. That said, all Departments of Insurance start off equal. Their primary function is to license companies to sell insurance in their state. Unlike other businesses, an insurance company is licensed state-by-state. No company can sell a policy across state lines. That means every national insurer must establish separate subsidiaries in each state and each company must hold a license. There are also minimum capital holdings set by the Department to protect the solvency of the local companies. There must always be enough money held by each company to pay out on the claims made. Some states require actual cash to be available. Others have a formula to prove the availability of money as required. But, for the most part, this is historical. The major players established their presence in multiple states years ago and newcomers moving across state lines are rare. In fact, the general lack of competition in state markets gives no incentive for companies to seek new licenses.

Once all the players hold their licenses, the personality of the Commissioners in charge comes to the fore. Many view their role as political either to run the Department with the lowest possible level of regulation or to be an effective watchdog to protect consumer rights. You can tell which way your local Department is run by logging on to your state's website. Some sites are very pro consumer, offering detailed help and advice on how to buy insurance and get a good deal. But the key test lies in the way complaints are handled. Without exception, all Departments accept complaints from people holding policies. In theory, they should all investigate these complaints and apply a judicial process to decide whether the insurer is at fault and, if so, what the remedy should be. For example, Road Island has just imposed a fine of $5,000 on a leading insurer. Following a traffic accident, the insured wanted the repair work done at his regular auto body shop. This was refused by the insurer because the shop was not on their list of approved body shops. Local regulations drawn up by the RI Department allow the insured a free choice of repair facilities. The fine of $5,000 and publicity for it represents a small penalty in itself. But if there were many such fines, the cumulative bad publicity would damage this insurance company's reputation and its market share would fall.

The best Departments are completely open about the complaints process, publishing details of the complaints, the identity of the insurance company and whether the complaints were upheld. When you are looking for cheap car insurance, this gives you an excellent guide to all the companies' performance in selling policies and handling claims. Sadly, the majority of Departments do not identify the bad insurance companies by name. The worst do not publish any useful information about complaints. This leaves you in the dark when looking for cheap car insurance with a reliable company.