It is the intent of the General Assembly: (1) To protect policyholders and the public against the adverse effect of excessive, inadequate or unfairly discriminatory rates. (2) To encourage, as the most effective way to produce rates that conform to the standards of paragraph (1), independent action by and reasonable price competition among insurers. (3) To provide formal regulatory controls for use if price competition fails. (4) To authorize cooperative action among insurers in the ratemaking process and to regulate such cooperation in order to prevent practices that tend to bring about monopoly or to lessen or destroy competition. (5) To provide rates that are responsive to competitive market conditions and to improve the availability of insurance in this Commonwealth.