Incumbent Insurance Commissioners Roll to Election Victories
OLDWICK, N.J. //BestWire// - Incumbent insurance commissioners scored easy Election Day victories Nov. 8, rolling to wins in California, Georgia and Kansas.
John KingIn Georgia, Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner John King, who was appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp in 2019, led Democrat Janice Laws Robinson by a comfortable 54%-46% margin with 97.5% of the ballots cast in unofficial results provided by the Secretary of State.
“Thank you, Georgia,” he said in a Facebook message. “We won’t let you down.”
King battled Robinson, who also ran unsuccessfully for the commissioner’s position in 2018, over rising automobile insurance rates. Robinson said King had not done enough to keep rates down, although both acknowledged state law does not allow the commissioner to intervene on a rate change before it is filed (BestWire, Nov. 4, 2022).
In California, incumbent Democratic Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara cruised to an unofficial 58%-42% vote over Republican Robert Howell with about 95% of the vote counted, according to state records.
Lara overcame questions about his judgment, in particular his decision upon being elected in 2018 to accept political donations from insurers — after saying he would not take them. Howell, an electronics manufacturing executive, did not mount a strong campaign, saying he chose to run “mostly because I can.”
Kansas Insurance Commissioner Vicki Schmidt also ran away with an easy win, defeating Democrat Kiel Corkran 63%-37%. Schmidt, who is completing her first term in office, said she will continue to focus on consumer education and streamlining operations in the insurance department. Corkran took down his campaign website and had little visible campaign presence because, he said, as a federal employee, he was prohibited from campaigning.
Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner Glen Mulready’s term starting next year was a foregone conclusion after he won the primary election with no Republican challenge and no Democrat on the ballot.
In another insurance-related election decision, voters in Massachusetts overwhelmingly approved a measure requiring dentists to refund excess premiums to customers if the annual medical loss ratio is less than 83%. The unofficial vote tally was 1.5 million compared with 616,880 or 71.3% to 28.7%, according to the Associated Press.
The Massachusetts Association of Health Plans opposed the measure, saying it would raise administrative costs.
A referendum group called The Committee to Protect Access to Quality Dental Care called the measure anti-consumer. It cited a June study by Milliman, commissioned by the National Association of Dental Plans, that said small dental providers would need to increase premiums by 38% and claims by more than 60% to meet the loss ratio (BestWire, Nov. 3, 2022).
The hit to larger dental providers would not be as great but would still demand higher premiums likely to drive away consumers, it said.
(By Timothy Darragh, associate editor, BestWire: Timothy.Darragh@ambest.com)