Cite as: 508 U. S. 491 (1993)
Kennedy, J., dissenting
that portions of Ohio's priority statute are saved from preemption by the McCarran-Ferguson Act. I agree that National Securities is the right place to begin the analysis. As the Court points out, National Securities is the one case in which we have considered the precise statutory provision that is controlling here to determine whether a state law applicable to insurance companies was a law enacted for the purpose of regulating the business of insurance. I disagree, however, with the Court's interpretation of that precedent.
The key to our analysis in National Securities was the construction of the term "business of insurance." In National Securities we said that statutes designed to protect or regulate the relationship between an insurance company and its policyholder, whether this end is accomplished in a direct or an indirect way, are laws regulating the business of insurance. 393 U. S., at 460. While noting that the exact scope of the McCarran-Ferguson Act was unclear, we observed that in passing the Act "Congress was concerned with the type of state regulation that centers around the contract of insurance." Ibid. There is general agreement that the primary concerns of an insurance contract are the spreading and the underwriting of risk, see 1 G. Couch, Cyclopedia of Insurance Law § 1.3 (2d ed. 1984); R. Keeton, Insurance Law § 1.2(a) (1971), and we have often recognized this central principle. See Union Labor Life Ins. Co. v. Pireno, 458 U. S. 119, 127, and n. 7 (1982); Group Life & Health Ins. Co. v. Royal Drug Co., 440 U. S. 205, 211-212 (1979).
When the majority applies the holding of National Securities to the case at bar, it concludes that the Ohio statute is not pre-empted to the extent it regulates the "performance of an insurance contract," ante, at 505, by ensuring that "policyholders ultimately will receive payment on their claims," ante, at 506. Under the majority's reasoning, see ante, at 493, 508, any law which redounds to the benefit of policyholders is, ipso facto, a law enacted to regulate the business of insurance. States attempting to discern the scope of powers
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