The Federal Government Regulate The Insurance Industry

Background The federal government’s role is in regulating industries is to protect consumers and the market. There is an ongoing debate on whether the federal government should regulate the insurance industry as a result of the bailouts stemming from the Financial Crisis of 2008. Currently, state governments regulate the insurance industry. Proponents of federal regulation reason that states are inefficient in the duty of insurance regulation. Additionally, the federal government has economies of scale and may offer an increase in efficiency unlike state regulation. The federal government regulates industries due to inherent systemic risk to the country’s economic environment. Systemic risk is the risk of collapse of an entire financial system or market. (SOURCE) For example, banking institutions such as Lehman Brothers, Merrell Lynch, and Goldman Sachs were major contributors to the financial crisis in 2008 because these institutions were systemically significant to th e market. The insurance industry and the core activities of the industry, however, were not a major contributor to near-collapse of the American economy. The federal government should not regulate the insurance industry because it does not possess a systemic risk to the market economy, states have the ability and resources to regulate, and federal regulation would result in unnecessary costs from the federal budget. The Insurance Industry and Systemic Risk The first initial component to what constitutesShow MoreRelatedThe State Run Regulatory System942 Words   |  4 PagesThe Insurance industry is very heavily state regulated. According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) study, the state run regulatory system is Federal verses State Regulation protecting the markets, insurance industry and policy holders and was evidenced during the financial crisis of 2008-09. 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