Why Vote for a State Insurance Commissioner?
Because in North Carolina, Natasha Marcus is running for it!
Some years ago I found myself alone, happy in my new life, but also for the first time figuring out things like budgets and taxes. I had to trust local agents for my health, car and homeowners insurance, to guide me to policies that fit my life and that I could afford.
Last Saturday I was reminded of this need for public trust, at a campaign rally in the Western North Carolina mountain town of Franklin. Our State Senate candidate, Adam Tebrugge, had invited half a dozen speakers. One of them was State Senator Natasha Marcus, who is running a grassroots campaign for NC Commissioner of Insurance.
Right away her enthusiasm for this public service job inspired me, both as a consumer and as a woman. I want her on my side.
Adam and Natasha are Democrats, but because the rally was about women’s healthcare rights, it was more about human values than politics. Still, in the end, it’s the politics in Raleigh that determine the values that affect people’s lives even in this little town, for good or for bad.
My state is one of eleven in the nation where the Commissioner of Insurance is elected by the voters. Marcus says this means she will be hired by the people to be their advocate. Her goal as Commissioner will be a balance of fair guidelines and regulations that benefit both consumers and insurance companies.
Marcus believes that politics shouldn’t determine insurance rates or influence staffing appointments. She is referring to the current Commissioner’s record of avoiding public hearings to hide his rate hikes and his pattern of hiring political friends for “make work” jobs and firing foes.
Marcus says,
In North Carolina we need more transparency, accountability, and advocacy from the Department of Insurance. Past Commissioners of Insurance held courtroom-like hearings to determine the validity of a rate hike request, but our current Commissioner hasn't held one, while approving 15 rate hikes with four more on the way.
With my background as a litigation attorney, I’m very comfortable with public hearings, and am ready to deliver for the people.
When the NC General Assembly majority redrew the election maps in 2022, the Republicans gerrymandered her house out of the district she serves. But instead of moving, she chose to run for a Council of State office.
Unlike her opponent, our current Commissioner Mike Causey, Marcus has never worked in the insurance industry. In fact she’s already working for the people.
At a public hearing in January, she spoke against a proposed 42.2% rate hike on homeowners’ insurance. Causey did not attend the hearing, in spite of a large public outcry against the hike.
Marcus challenged his absence:
The public deserves a full public hearing on the proposed rate increase, that would include evidence presented by insurance companies under oath about their profits, about their salaries, about the claims made in the different regions of the state.
That evidence needs to be cross-examined by the Commissioner of Insurance himself. Just comments on the record is not enough.
Marcus also wants to tackle an insurance loophole that insurers use to trick many North Carolina policy buyers into paying a higher rate than the maximum rate as set by the Commissioner. It’s called the Consent to Rate Form (CTR). She says,
It’s the kind of corporate grift that the Insurance Commissioner should be cracking down on. CTR was created under N.C. law for rare, difficult-to-insure situations. It was not supposed to hit regular home and car owners with excessive rates.
Yet, too many families notice in their bill that their rates are going way up, even when they haven’t filed a single claim. They are shocked.
North Carolina needs a Commissioner who will protect families from strong-arm tactics like CTR that allow insurance companies to make record profits while families are struggling.
That’s why we elect a Commissioner of Insurance.
There’s another reason why Natasha Marcus will get my vote, one that she demonstrated with passion last Saturday at the women’s healthcare rally.
Women’s healthcare is under the gun in our state. A year ago, the Republican-led NC General Assembly proposed Senate Bill 20. Written behind closed doors, this bill banned abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy in nearly all cases, and restricted the rights of doctors to care for pregnant women.
Sen. Marcus argued that if it were to pass into law, women and girls would suffer, and doctors who feared prosecution for common medical practices would leave the state.
Senator Marcus spoke against SB 20 on the Senate floor. To me, she stood up for women all over the world.
She said, in part,
Republicans in the past have stood for small government and personal freedom. But if you make SB 20 the law, you can’t claim to stand on those principles anymore.
This bill undermines women’s ability to trust that you care about what happens to us, that you trust us to make our own decisions, that you value our lives, our contributions, our humanity.”
In many cases we will be forced to continue unwanted, unsafe pregnancies and to give birth against our will.
It will also rule out treatments related to cancer, mental health conditions, drug addiction and miscarriages, because those conditions may not meet your narrow exceptions in this bill.
Senator Marcus continued,
It’s unthinkable and cruel that you would do this to women and girls, making a difficult decision much worse, more rushed, more stressful, more expensive.
And it’s even worse that you gaslight us into thinking that SB 20 is for our own protection, or for our morality that you are trying to protect. This is not how modern societies treat women, it’s not what North Carolina women want or deserve.
Then she urged fellow Senators who had previously favored the bill, to change their minds and vote no.
But the Republican-led General Assembly rushed SB 20 through. As soon as it became law, Governor Cooper vetoed it. Then the General Assembly overrode his veto. Last September, a Federal Judge blocked two of the bill’s provisions. (See notes below for details.)
Today in America, it’s still possible to find out whether the values held by our elected officials serve themselves, or if they serve the people in their districts.
Today’s extreme differences between these values are on display. The voter’s choice between candidates for a national, state or local office could not be more clear.
Next week our State Senator and candidate for Commissioner of Insurance, Natasha Marcus, will be at Transylvania County Democratic Headquarters from 2-3pm, Monday, May 20th, for an informal meet and greet. Everyone is invited.
Just before that, she will give the keynote speech at our Democratic Women’s Spring Luncheon. I wouldn’t miss it.
Thank you Deda. I appreciate all the effort and analysis that goes into your postcards. Gail Wilcox
Best of luck to you and to North Carolina. Every woman deserves healthcare - every person deserves healthcare.