Why We Disrupted the Insurance Commissioners’ National Gathering
Thousands of Public Citizen Members Demand an Anti-Corruption Pledge
By Rick Morris
We’re at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ quarterly conference to demand state insurance commissioners listen to their constituents and sign an anti-corruption pledge.
The climate crisis is spiraling out of control and taking our home insurance with it. Severe weather is expected to drive up home insurance rates in all 50 states, and insurers are paying out less, with more than one-in-three weather-related claims going unpaid on average. Meanwhile, insurers are raking in historic profits with executive pay on the rise.
Where are the regulators?
Unlike banks and other big financial institutions, insurance companies are regulated by the states. That means that state insurance regulators shape the rules that govern trillions of dollars in insurance policies—affecting Americans’ homes, health, and financial futures. These state insurance commissioners are entrusted with safeguarding consumers in an industry that has immense power and profit at stake.
Yet despite that responsibility, state insurance commissioners operate under uneven and weak conflict of interest rules. Insurance companies throw lavish parties for regulators, throw cash at their campaigns, and hand them lucrative jobs. Advocacy organizations, academics, and law firms have detailed how this revolving door between the insurance industry and regulators creates a dangerous cycle that undermines consumer protections, threatens the objectivity and strength of regulatory oversight, and tilts policy toward corporate interests.
In short, the fox is guarding the henhouse.
Most states subject their legislators to more stringent rules. Thirty-three states have laws that restrict former legislators from immediately becoming lobbyists, with cooling-off periods ranging from one to two years. This is now a basic standard in American politics. Even Congress passed the bipartisan STOCK Act to ban insider trading by lawmakers and their families—because public service should not be a path to private enrichment.
That’s why we’re calling on the insurance commissioners to set a higher standard.
Here’s our petition:
We demand that every insurance commissioner adopt an Anti-Corruption Pledge that applies to all commissioners and their immediate families, that includes the following commitments:
- No gifts, meals, or paid travel from insurance companies, industry lobbyists, or affiliated trade groups—including for spouses and dependent children.
- No campaign contributions from insurance companies or their employees.
- No financial conflicts of interest: Commissioners, their spouses, and dependent children must divest from insurance company stocks, bonds, or other financial instruments that could compromise impartiality.
- No job negotiations or offers with the insurance industry while in office.
- No lobbying of former colleagues or departments for at least two years after leaving public office.
- Full public transparency of all meetings,* communications, and interactions with industry representatives or lobbyists, including posted logs and summaries. *(While a minority of meetings may remain closed-door, such as financial reviews of companies, those should be carefully circumscribed and justified with an eye towards rebuilding public trust by maximizing data transparency.)
Commissioners should not profit from the industries they regulate. They should not walk out of office into industry boardrooms. And they should not be allowed to work in the public interest while holding personal financial stakes in the companies they oversee.
By adopting this pledge, state insurance commissioners would take the first step to restore public trust, safeguard the independence of insurance regulation, and demonstrate a clear commitment to protecting people over profit.