How WA insurance commissioner candidates approach auto, home, health coverage

Oct. 15—This November, Washington will elect a new insurance commissioner for the first time in more than 20 years. The candidates, two sitting state senators, have both acknowledged the skyrocketing prices of home and auto insurance, and said they'd work to stabilize rates. But they proposed vastly different strategies for doing so.

Sen. Patty Kuderer, D-Bellevue, and Sen. Phil Fortunato, R-Auburn, both said there are limitations to the office — many of the changes each would like to make to insurance practices in Washington would have to pass the state Legislature.

But both highlighted some new policies they would push for should they win the seat, across home, auto and health insurance.

Kuderer said educating and advocating for consumers would be top priorities. She said she'd push for things like simplifying appeals processes when claims are denied and advocating for legislation that requires insurance contracts to be in plain language so that consumers can know what they're signing up for.

"One of the roles of the insurance commissioner is consumer outreach," she said. "For example, a lot of people don't change their insurance company very often. It's actually a good idea to shop around. People don't necessarily know they can save money by bundling auto and homeowners insurance policies."

"More transparency and better communication between insurers and insurants is critical," she said.

Fortunato said his main goal would be encouraging competition between insurance companies.

"I'm not going to say I want to make it easier on insurance companies, but I want them to come to Washington state. I want them fighting for your business, giving you incentives, reducing rates," he said. "You don't get that by over-regulating the industry and lengthening the time it takes to get rate increases granted."

Fortunato said he'd support a practice called "file and use," which allows insurance companies to more quickly implement rate increases.

In Washington, in order to increase rates, insurance companies must submit data to the state showing why a rate increase is necessary. Approvals can take a long time, Fortunato said, which can deter companies from wanting to operate in Washington.

"File and use" allows companies to file for a rate increase and immediately start using it. The commissioner's office must then retroactively grant approval of the increase. If it finds that the insurance company increased rates unnecessarily, it can require the company to refund customers.

"If you're an insurance company is it in your interest to have to refund customers?" he said. "When you have file and use, they ask for more moderate increases."

Kuderer said she'd be open to considering such a policy, but said she'd focus first on assessing whether current premiums are priced appropriately.

Here's where the candidates stand on a few key issues:

Auto insurance

Both candidates noted that auto insurance prices have increased drastically in the past few years, due to the costs of cars and repairs. Each candidate also called out the high number of uninsured drivers, which they said have increased premiums for those who do have insurance. But they differed on how they would manage rates.

Fortunato noted the skyrocketing costs of auto insurance, but stopped short of saying he would push insurers to lower costs.

"This inflationary cycle is killing everybody," he said. "What are you going to do, tell insurance companies they can't increase rates?"

He said he's been asked before whether he takes issue with insurance companies spending big on advertising — like purchasing naming rights to baseball stadiums — instead of lowering rates.

"The insurance company is not a purveyor of social policy," he said. "If they take that money and lower rates, they lose sales, and they lose customers. I want them to get more customers. Consumer protection, what does that mean? You're holding companies to the policies they sell."

Kuderer said she would push the legislature to look at whether insurance companies should be allowed to raise premiums twice a year on six-month policies, instead of just annually.

She also said she would look at ways to mitigate risks to drivers.

"We have dangerous intersections. There are ways we can make the highways safer, and we should be looking into that," she said. "Drivers' education used to be in schools, and it's not anymore."

Homeowners' insurance

Fortunato said he would like to see the state offer discounts to homeowners' insurance for people who make their homes more resistant to natural disasters like wildfires, such as by cutting back trees and brush or using fire-resistant shingles and decking material.

He also said he'd push the state Legislature to allocate money from its "rainy day fund" each year to subsidize up to 20% of wildfire claims. That money wouldn't necessarily get spent every year, he said, but would be available if wildfires happen.

"By allocating that money, it just sits there, but it reduces the risk to insurance companies," he said. "By reducing risk to the insurance companies, it lowers their insurance rates."

Kuderer said she would like to see the state focus on creating more disaster-resilient infrastructure, strengthening not just individual homes but whole communities to the impacts of climate change.

She also said she would push insurance companies to explain their reasons for not renewing someone's insurance — if there's something the homeowner could do to maintain their insurability, she said, the company should inform them ahead of time.

Fortunato also railed against a policy Kuderer has advocated for — requiring people to provide their insurance companies with the number of guns they have in their home, and have liability insurance to compensate victims of accidental shootings in their homes.

"Let's say someone breaks into your house and they're not there to do anything good," Fortunato said. "And you decide to shoot them. This $1 million policy is for your assailant. He would get access to that money for recompense for your actions. I disagree with that."

Health insurance

The two candidates painted contrasting visions for health insurance in Washington.

Kuderer has advocated for single-payer universal health care, which she says would ensure all residents of Washington have equitable and guaranteed access to health care. That would require a vote by the state Legislature but would be administered by the insurance commissioner's office. But even if it does pass, that's several years away, she said.

In the interim, she said, she's drawn on the current policy recommendations from the Office of the Insurance Commissioner's report on health care.

That includes increasing the "medical loss ratio," or the amount of money from a patient's premium that goes toward patient care, instead of toward administrative costs. Currently, Kuderer said, providers in small and individual markets spend about 80% of premiums on health care, and large markets spend about 85%. Kuderer said she'd like to see that percentage go up to 88% across the board.

She also said she'd like to simplify the appeal process for consumers when their medical claims are denied.

Fortunato staunchly opposed universal health care, citing what he said would be an inevitable payroll tax. He said he wants consumers to be able to pick and choose what their plan covers. That, he said, would lower costs by allowing people to opt out of certain things.

"If you want a policy that covers birth control, buy a policy that covers birth control," he said. "I favor consumers having more control over what they want in their plan, not having the state of Washington mandate that they have certain things they may or may not want."

He also decried the low rates of reimbursement for Medicare, a government health plan for people over 65 and those with disabilities. Those low reimbursement rates can hit small clinics particularly hard, he said, with insurance companies reimbursing those clinics for negligible amounts.

"It is in the community's interest to have local clinics," he said. "This is something we could address through the insurance commissioner's office."

More information about the candidates is available on the Washington secretary of state's website.

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