WSJ Opinion: How Did A Nonprofit Become America's Insurance Regulator?

WSJ Opinion: How Did A Nonprofit Become America's Insurance Regulator?

This weekend, The Wall Street Journal opinion page ran an op-ed from the Southwest Public Policy Institute's Patrick Brenner highlighting a problem Pinpoint has been tracking for years: the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, a private nonprofit which has quietly absorbed the regulatory authority of all 50 states over a $3 trillion insurance market — with no Form 990, no public accreditation findings, and no accountability to voters:

"Welcome to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. The first rule of the organization is you don't talk about the organization. The Government Accountability Office reported in June that the NAIC committee responsible for accrediting state insurance regulators doesn't make its accreditation findings public and that its discussions on the subject are limited to regulators. Accreditation determines whether other states will accept a state's solvency examinations and, in practice, places intense pressure on legislatures to enact specified model laws. The deliberations happen in a room a state resident can't enter and produce a record he can't read." – Patrick Brenner, Southwest Public Policy Institute

Op-Ed: Patrick Brenner: How Did A Nonprofit Become America's Insurance Regulator?

States have surrendered much of their power to a private organization with almost no transparency.

By Patrick Brenner

Wall Street Journal

August 28, 2026

New Mexico's Insurance Superintendent Alice Kane recently told state lawmakers that insurers declined to renew more than 6,200 homeowner policies in 2025, the highest number ever. The reflex is to blame greedy insurers and actuaries in Hartford, Conn., pricing wildfire risk in counties they couldn't find on a map.

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For the rest of the article, please go to the link: https://www.wsj.com/opinion/how-did-a-nonprofit-become-americas-insurance-regulator-f3da377e