Insurance regulation and the federal government probably never entered your mind at the same time, but you may need to change the way you think. Currently, each state regulates rates, agent and company licensing, company financial oversight and pretty much everything related to insurance. This allows states to affect laws and regulations that take into account regional issues. Although it's not a perfect system, it's still a lot more responsive than federal government usually is.

Over the past few years, major national insurers have been pressuring Congress to take control of insurance regulation. The first proposal, the optional federal charter for insurers, would essentially allow insurers to decide whether to be regulated by the states or by the federal government. If an insurer decides to go with the federal oversight, then the company would be exempt from state regulations.

Another element of the campaign for federal insurance regulation is the misleadingly named Insurance Information Act of 2008 (H.R. 5840). When this bill was first introduced, it was presented as the answer to a need to have a source of information about the insurance industry, similar to a library. But then H.R. 5840 began to morph. By the time the bill emerged from the House of Representatives Capital Markets Subcommittee this summer, it had been changed significantly.