Standards.
1. Rates must not be excessive, inadequate or unfairly discriminatory, nor may an insurer charge any rate which if continued will have or tend to have the effect of destroying competition or creating a monopoly.
2. The Commissioner may disapprove rates if there is not a reasonable degree of price competition at the consumer level with respect to the class of business to which they apply. In determining whether a reasonable degree of price competition exists, the Commissioner shall consider all relevant tests, including:
(a) The number of insurers actively engaged in the class of business and their shares of the market;
(b) The existence of differentials in rates in that class of business;
(c) Whether long-run profitability for insurers generally of the class of business is unreasonably high in relation to its riskiness;
(d) Consumers’ knowledge in regard to the market in question; and
(e) Whether price competition is a result of the market or is artificial.
ÊIf competition does not exist, rates are excessive if they are likely to produce a long-run profit that is unreasonably high in relation to the riskiness of the class of business, or if expenses are unreasonably high in relation to the services rendered.
3. Rates are inadequate if they are clearly insufficient, together with the income from investments attributable to them, to sustain projected losses and expenses in the class of business to which they apply.
4. One rate is unfairly discriminatory in relation to another in the same class if it clearly fails to reflect equitably the differences in expected losses and expenses. Rates are not unfairly discriminatory because different premiums result for policyholders with similar exposure to loss but different expense factors, or similar expense factors but different exposure to loss, so long as the rates reflect the differences with reasonable accuracy. Rates are not unfairly discriminatory if they are averaged broadly among persons insured under a group, franchise or blanket policy.
Last modified: February 27, 2006