No certificate of authority shall be issued to any hospital service corporation except on receipt of evidence by the Commissioner of Banking and Insurance that the corporation is in receipt of not less than five hundred dollars ($500.00) on bona fide applications for hospital service contracts from not less than two hundred persons, which applications shall contain provisions to the effect that any amounts collected with such applications will be returned to such persons if the certificate of authority applied for is not received by the corporation within one year from the date of the first of such applications. The commissioner may refuse to issue any certificate of authority applied for if, in his judgment, the issue thereof is contrary to the public interest.
N.J.S. § 17:48-4