The insurance industry's push for deregulation is spreading across the nation with little sign of slowing. Already, tens of millions of consumers in various states are seeing price controls and other regulatory mechanisms either eased or eliminated altogether.

In South Carolina, already one of the country's more liberalized markets, the Legislature has been considering a bill to deregulate the industry further.

Massachusetts and New Jersey, both long considered heavy-handed regulatory bureaucracies, also are moving toward some form of insurance deregulation.

Massachusetts, which still sets auto insurance rates and requires auto insurers to accept all applicants, is loosening some of those policies because of claims that its rules are burdensome, repel industry and have led to shortages in availability for consumers.

The state is phasing in a plan to allow insurance companies more flexibility in setting prices, at least for certain optional lines of coverage.

New Jersey is going a bit further.

The Garden State is in the process of relaxing provisions that govern companies' "excess profits" and expediting the rate-filing approval process for companies seeking price changes.

The state is phasing out by 2009 a requirement that says providers of auto insurance must accept all applicants who meet good-driver criteria.

States elsewhere also are changing their regulatory structures, in many cases loosening or eliminating price controls on consumer insurance lines.

Louisiana, which saw dozens of home insurers flee the state over the past decade, commenced a major price deregulation initiative last month.

The state's so-called flex-band rating system, modeled after the one set up for South Carolina auto insurers, allows insurers in Louisiana to raise or lower rates up to 10 percent without seeking state approval.

Robert Wooley, the state's insurance commissioner, has said his support for loosening those controls stems from surveys he conducted with representatives of the industry.

Wooley has vowed to consider other regulatory reforms that he says will fuel economic development in Louisiana.

The Texas Legislature went even further, passing a law in June that effectively will lift almost all price controls on personal insurance products starting in December.

The state's insurance commissioner, Jose Montemayor, was not available for comment, but department officials have said he will still be able to overturn rate increases that he deems too severe.

According to Dan Lambe of Texas Watch, a consumer advocacy group active in insurance matters, the legislation comes straight out of industry lobbying efforts.

"The Legislature passed exactly what the industry wanted: less oversight on rates, coverage and underwriting practices and fewer safeguards for Texas policyholders, who will ultimately pay the price," he said.

Closer to home, North Carolina employs a fairly unique regulatory model for home and auto insurers that combines flexibility for the industry with caps on price increases for consumers.

Each year, the insurance commissioner sets the maximum rate increase available to home and auto insurers in various geographic areas, giving insurance companies in the state the power to set their own coverage terms and prices below established price ceilings.

"That's the way we have done it for years, and that's the way we'll continue because it works for consumers," said Jim Long, the state's insurance commissioner.

He said the state has no plans to liberalize the policy anytime soon.