Cite as: 538 U. S. 329 (2003)
Opinion of the Court
whether that law is integral to the insurer-insured relationship, id., at 51, and whether that law is limited to the insurance industry, ibid.4 Rush Prudential, by contrast, focused the McCarran-Ferguson inquiry on the conduct regulated by the state law, rather than the state law itself. 536 U. S., at 373 ("It is obvious enough that the independent review requirement regulates 'an integral part of the policy relationship between the insurer and insured' " (emphasis added)); id., at 374 ("The final factor, that the law be aimed at a 'practice . . . limited to entities within the insurance industry' is satisfied . . ." (emphasis added; citation omitted)).
We have never held that the McCarran-Ferguson factors are an essential component of the § 1144(b)(2)(A) inquiry. Metropolitan Life initially used these factors only to buttress its previously reached conclusion that Massachusetts' mandated-benefit statute was a "law . . . which regulates insurance" under § 1144(b)(2)(A). 471 U. S., at 742-743. Pilot Life referred to them as mere "considerations [to be] weighed" in determining whether a state law falls under the saving clause. 481 U. S., at 49. UNUM emphasized that the McCarran-Ferguson factors were not " 'require[d]' " in the saving clause analysis, and were only "checking points" to be used after determining whether the state law regulates insurance from a "common-sense" understanding. 526 U. S., at 374. And Rush Prudential called the factors "guide-posts," using them only to "confirm our conclusion" that Illinois' statute regulated insurance under § 1144(b)(2)(A). 536 U. S., at 373.
Today we make a clean break from the McCarran-Ferguson factors and hold that for a state law to be deemed a "law . . . which regulates insurance" under § 1144(b)(2)(A),
4 This approach rendered the third McCarran-Ferguson factor a mere repetition of the prior inquiry into whether a state law is "specifically directed toward" the insurance industry under the "common-sense view." UNUM Life Ins. Co. of America v. Ward, supra, at 375; Pilot Life Ins. Co. v. Dedeaux, 481 U. S. 41, 50 (1987).
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