Texas State Senator Wendy Davis responded to constituents complaints about arbritary actions by Texas Insurance Commissioner Eleanor Kitzman by calling on Governor Perry to remove Kitzman from her appointed post. In a letter to Gov,. Perry Friday, Aug. 30, Sen. Davis calls for transparency and accountability in the Texas Insurance Commission and cites anti-consumer actions by Kitzman which cost Texas taxpayers money.
Sen. Davis released sent this message to constituents:
From day one, you have heard me talk about the importance of government accountability and full transparency. Some recent decisions made by Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) Commissioner Eleanor Kitzman were anything but transparent.
Over the course of just a few months, Ms. Kitzman has proven that she is only concerned with protecting insurance companies and has shown complete disregard for protecting Texas consumers. That’s why I’ve called on Governor Perry to remove Kitzman from her appointed post.
Kitzman has already managed to roll back years’ worth of consumer protection for Texans:
- Without asking the opinion of taxpayers or elected officials, Kitzman arbitrarily announced she would remove important rules that protect health insurance policyholders from being charged certain fees that could otherwise be avoided;
- Kitzman removed from TDI’s website a list of insurance companies found to have used deceptive or illegal practices against policyholders;
- She refused to disclose emails received and sent between her agency and an insurance oversight group; and,
Texans deserve an Insurance Commissioner who works for them and not against them. Eleanor Kitzman should be protecting Texans’ household budgets rather than making it easier for insurance companies to fill their own pockets.
- Kitzman fought against giving policy rebates to consumers as required when insurance companies spend too much money on advertising and corporate bonuses and too little money providing health care coverage to policyholders.
Please know that I will continue fighting to protect the rights of Texas consumers by working to see that failed and irresponsible appointed officials like Commissioner Kitzman are not allowed to stay on our state’s payroll.Your friend, and proudly, your state senator,
Wendy
Senator Davis updated her website and included this background:
Following her request to Perry, Davis said, “Commissioner Kitzman’s actions reflect a pervasive anti-consumer, closed-door culture at the Department of Insurance. And, unfortunately, this hostility toward consumers spreads beyond TDI and into the Legislature.”
In 2009, and again in 2011, legislators were tasked with performing a constitutionally required “sunset review” of the Department. Unfortunately for policyholders, special interests carried the day.
More concerned with lining their donors’ pockets than protecting consumers, dozens of State House members, including Fort Worth’s Mark Shelton, repeatedly voted against the constituents they were elected to serve.
Shelton and his cohorts voted to protect insurance companies by:
- Allowing them to raise rates on consumers without State oversight;
- Blocking full accountability at the Department of Insurance by allowing the Commissioner to continue being a Perry appointee, versus an elected official chosen by voters at the ballot box.
- Allowing insurers to deny coverage based on applicants’ credit scores;
- Allowing insurers to deny coverage for losses incurred when residents evacuate during natural disasters.
Unlike her opponent, Wendy Davis championed legislation that would protect Texas consumers by:
- Requiring insurers to refund excessive premiums to policyholders;
- Creating an online “apples-to-apples” comparison of Texas insurance rates, which would allow consumers to identify the most competitive rates available;
- Allowing voters to elect the Insurance Commissioner;
- Requiring insurance companies to give policyholders notice of pending rate increases;
- Requiring health insurers to pre-file rate increases with the Department of Insurance for review before implementing increases.
Davis is a strong advocate for government transparency and accountability. “Texans deserve better than what they are getting from the current majority in Austin,” she said. “State officials are supposed to be representing Texas’ hard working families, not insurance companies and other special interests.”
Davis pointed out the fact that, under the Texas Constitution, the Texas Senate will be responsible for confirming or denying Kitzman’s appointment during the upcoming 83rd Legislature.
“Commissioner Kitzman was appointed during the interim, when the Legislature is not in Austin,” said Davis. “Her qualifications have not been reviewed by the Senate. When we return in January and begin the confirmation process, I think the odds are very high that Commissioner Kitzman will not be confirmed.”
Petitions to the Department of Insurance have gone unheeded from constituent upset by the Commission requesting exceptions to allow Texas Insurance Companies to apply more than the mandated 20% maximum of premium costs toward Insurance Company profit and administrative cost for medicare payments. One of the reforms passed by Congress (and frequently discounted by insurance industry distractorss as "Obamacare" requires that no more than 20% of the premiums paid for health insurance can be diverted from health care costs and pocketed by insurance companies as profit or applied to administrative cost.
