One year after the passage of a historic overhaul of the health insurance industry in the U.S. much of the health care landscape is the same, while a great deal of what is different isn’t what was intended.

Two Pennsylvania insurance associations say they do not expect that a bill that calls for electing rather than appointing the state’s insurance commissioner to earn Pennsylvania General Assembly approval this year.

A bill that would create a “one-stop shop” for agents with licenses in multiple states should be filed in the U.S. House of Representatives this week, insurance officials say.

State insurance regulation is a good thing for many reasons, but for just as many, it isn’t. On the plus side, insurance really is a local transaction for some lines because state laws differ. Therefore, regulating the business for those lines belongs with the states.

The level of insurance regulation in the state where insurance agents and brokers do business is greater than necessary, a majority of respondents reported in the latest IFAwebnews.com poll.

Rep. Dennis Moore, a Democrat from Kansas, has asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate alleged abuses of federally sanctioned risk retention groups (RRGs) by some state insurance regulators.

The organization representing state insurance commissioners has scheduled a two-day hearing in July in Washington, D.C., to discuss issues resulting from the passage of federal health care reform legislation earlier this year.

The simmering debate over how to regulate insurance in this post-AIG bailout 1, 2 and 3, Bernie Madoff scandal and “will-I-have-enough-to-retire-in-20-years? world appears to have taken yet another turn, according …  Read →