44-7502.

Purposes of act.

The purposes of the Property and Casualty Insurance Rate and Form Act are:

(1) To prohibit price-fixing agreements and other anticompetitive behavior by insurers;

(2) To protect policyholders and the public against excessive rates and the adverse effects of inadequate or unfairly discriminatory rates;

(3) To regulate insurance contracts so they: (a) Are not unjust, unfair, ambiguous, inconsistent, inequitable, misleading, deceptive, or contrary to public policy; (b) are not written so as to encourage the misrepresentation of coverage; (c) reasonably provide the general coverage for policies of that type; (d) comply with the provisions and the intent of the laws of this state; and (e) do not provide coverage contrary to the public interest;

(4) To promote rates that reflect the benefits of competition;

(5) To provide appropriate data reporting systems;

(6) To provide regulatory oversight in the absence of competition;

(7) To authorize essential cooperative action among insurers in the development of policy forms, prospective loss costs, and other information and to regulate such activity to prevent practices that tend to substantially lessen competition or create a monopoly; and

(8) To promote the dissemination of price and other information to enable consumers to purchase insurance suitable for their needs and to foster competitive insurance markets.