Ideoblog: Hot off the press: Butler and Ribstein on insurance Hot off the press: Butler and Ribstein on insurance Insurance is currently regulated by the states, and they’ve made a mess of it. The federal government is closing in. Henry Butler & I have an answer — model insurance regulation on corporate governance. The paper is A Single-License Approach to Regulating Insurance. Here’s the abstract: State regulation of insurance companies has been criticized for many years because of the burden imposed on insurers by having to comply with the laws of many jurisdictions. These higher costs are passed on to consumers. The problems with the current regulatory structure are prompting calls for increased federal regulation of insurance. However, all proposals to federalize insurance regulation create opportunities for abuse at the hands of the federal government and fail to utilize the benefits of a federal system. This article shows how many of the problems of the current system can be addressed without resorting to a large scale intrusion of federal regulators into insurance markets. …