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§ 59A-17-6 NMSA 1978

Rate standards

Known as the Insurance Rate Regulation Law

The act spans §§ 59–59 (46 sections).

Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case Anthem Health Plans of Maine, Inc. v. Superintendent of Insurance (2012)

Most recently applied in Bhasker v. Kemper Cas. Ins. Co. (February 2019)

Laws 1984, ch. 127, § 302; 2007, ch. 367, § 8.

How often courts cite this section

2012201910
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

A. Rates shall not be excessive, inadequate or unfairly discriminatory, nor shall an insurer charge any rate that, if continued, will have or tend to have the effect of destroying competition or creating a monopoly.

B. In a competitive market, rates are presumed not to be excessive.

C. In a noncompetitive market, rates are excessive if they are likely to produce a profit that is unreasonably high in relation to the riskiness of the line, kind or class of business, or if expenses are unreasonably high in relation to the services rendered.

D. Rates are inadequate if they are clearly insufficient, together with the investment income attributable to them, to sustain projected losses and expenses in the line, kind or class of business to which they apply.

E. There is unfair discrimination if one rate is unfairly discriminatory in relation to another in the same line, kind or class if it clearly fails to reflect equitably the differences in expected losses and expenses. Rates are not unfairly discriminatory because different premiums result for policyholders with like loss exposures but different expense factors, or like expense factors but different loss exposures, so long as the rates reflect the differences with reasonable accuracy. Rates are not unfairly discriminatory if they are averaged broadly among persons insured under a group, franchise or blanket policy or a mass marketing plan.

Official source: NMOneSource (New Mexico Compilation Commission). Reproduced from public-domain New Mexico statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.