Minot Daily News Endorsement
I was very honored to receive the endorsement of the Minot Daily News today! If you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, you can find it in the “news” section of this website.
October 26, 2008-Minot Daily News Endorsement
Hamm for Insurance Commissioner
There are some similarities between Adam Hamm and Jasper Schneider. Both are young, up-and-coming members of their respective political parties, and both are attorneys.
But the similarities end there, and only one is qualified to be North Dakota’s Insurance Commissioner: Adam Hamm.
The Republican Hamm has been insurance commissioner for a year, after being appointed to fill the remainder of Jim Poolman’s term after Poolman resigned to take a private sector job.
And he’s had a busy year. Among other things, Hamm rejected two rate increase requests from Blue Cross/Blue Shield, saying the insurance giant couldn’t justify the requests. “Their numbers haven’t been reliable,” Hamm told The Minot Daily News.
Hamm has three clear goals if he is re-elected: Attracting large, dependable insurance companies to the state to compete with Blue Cross/Blue Shield, improving the Medicare reimbursement rate, and improving the state’s use of medical services by educating the public on how a healthier lifestyle can lead to lower insurance premiums.
Schneider, a Democrat, has run a feisty campaign. He says providing health insurance for the state’s uninsured children, regulating the Workforce Safety and Insurance office, and creating a state disaster fund will be priorities if he is elected. Schneider has criticized Hamm for his handling of an insurance settlement with the town of Northwood after the town’s school was destroyed by a tornado, as well as for spending taxpayer money to pay for an ad about a health insurance program for senior citizens that Schneider said was nothing more than a campaign ad. “He misused public money to run a campaign ad,” Schneider told The Minot Daily News.
Hamm maintains the ad, paid for through a federal grant, was not political.
Perhaps it wasn’t intended to be political, but when both his image and voice were featured in the ad, it’s political. But although important, the ad flap isn’t the only issue in this campaign.
Although Hamm has been on the job for only a year, he’s already met some major challenges. He perhaps isn’t as vocal or outgoing on the issues as Schneider, but make no mistake: Hamm understand the importance of the role of the insurance commissioner. One example: Schneider criticizes Hamm as not being on the side of consumers, but Hamm’s rejection of BCBS rate hikes prove otherwise. We fully expect Hamm to continue his tough-but-fair approach to dealing with BCBS and other insurance issues.
The Minot Daily News endorses Adam Hamm for Insurance Commissioner.
October 26, 2008-Bismarck Tribune
10-26-2008: news-columnists
Just remember momma’s advice
By JOHN IRBY
Bismarck TribuneGood mommas become good mommas, in part, from the good advice they give us. I remember my momma and some of the things she said to me:
Wear clean underwear, brush your teeth three times a day and shower every morning. She told me that life wasn’t always fair, but most of the bad things that happen aren’t the end of the world. I learned from her and my pop that money doesn’t grow on trees.
Be careful what you wish for as it might come true, she would often offer. She would also explain why I could or couldn’t do something: “Because I’m your mother and I said so, that’s why!”
But the best of my momma’s truths — or deal with the consequences — was this one: If you can’t say something nice, then don’t say anything at all.
I have mentioned this jewel to my own children many times.
But somewhere along the chain of food, command, fence or letter that message from mommas has been altered, at least by politicians, who mostly, probably, also had good mommas.
The political creed today seems to be this: Never say anything nice about your opponent, especially if you are behind in the campaign. The creed continues: It is often best to sling mud in the face of your opponents to see how much sticks and distorts his or her real image.
Sounds like out-of-control kids.
That philosophy, as we all know, is in direct opposition of the “North Dakota Nice” norm. Therefore, it’s a good thing we only have about two weeks left of the negative campaigns and all the muddy fights.
Truth be told — and I am — I’ve never believed the old yarn about sticks and stones breaking bones and words never hurting. I’ve been hit with sticks and stones and none ever broke a bone, but I’ve sure had several mouthfuls of hurtful words spewed at me.
Far too many campaign managers, strategists and candidates believe attacking an opponent on professional and personal levels is effective. They claim they have proof it works.
Maybe I am naïve, but I don’t like it. It doesn’t work with me and it makes me question the character of the attacker. I want to know why I should vote for a candidate, not why I shouldn’t vote for the other candidate.
It’s also a matter of respect; not only for the candidate being attacked, but for the attacker. How can a candidate respect him- or herself if he-she bends or blends the truth, tells only part of a story or makes up blatant accusations for propaganda purposes? How can I respect them?
Maybe I am old-fashioned, but I believe it is always best to strut, humbly, your own stuff. My personal votes are based on the positive qualities a candidate convinces me that he or she has to do a job. I understand no candidate for any job, political or otherwise, is perfect, but bad-mouthing the competition with me is a huge negative. And I don’t base my vote on partisan politics.
The national and local examples of mudslingers and specific messages abound. They fling different amounts of filthy words at every opportunity. This could be a never-ending column of specific examples, but what would be the purpose? Still, here is a brief critique of several races and the high, low and middle roads that candidates have taken.
President:
McCain — low road.
Obama — middle road.
Governor:
Hoeven — high road.
Mathern — middle road.
Congress:
Pomeroy — low road.
Sand — low road.
Insurance Commissioner:
Hamm — high road.
Schneider — low road.
Auditor:
Peterson — no road.
Splichal — high road.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction:
Laird — middle road.
Sanstead — high road.
State Treasurer:
Schmidt — high road.
Vance — low to middle road.
High and middle road politicians get more consideration with me; The low-roaders can win my vote if they are the best candidate, but it’s a harder sale.
A final note: This week’s Tribune editorials will focus on political endorsements. My personal voting preferences have limited influence on the Tribune’s editorial board endorsement decisions. I am one of four members of the board who have equal influence in these discussions and decisions. The ultimate decision rests with the publisher, but he rarely exercises that power and the five members of the board generally reach a negotiated consensus.
And a final note for mommas: Don’t let your boys and girls grow up to be mudslinging, low-road riding politicians.
October 25, 2008-Jamestown Sun
Fargo lawyers spar in heated insurance race
By James MacPherson, The Associated Press
The Jamestown Sun - 10/25/2008 BISMARCK — Two Fargo attorneys are waging one of the state’s most contentious races this fall — a fight to see who will become North Dakota’s top insurance regulator.
North Dakota is one of a dozen states with an elected insurance commissioner. In most states, the job is appointed by the governor.
Adam Hamm, 37, a former Cass County prosecutor, is running for his first elected term as insurance commissioner. Gov. John Hoeven appointed him in October 2007 to finish the term of incumbent Republican Jim Poolman, who resigned.
Within a few weeks, Fargo state Democratic Rep. Jasper Schneider began his own campaign for the seat. He was unchallenged for the Democratic endorsement to run against Hamm.
Schneider, 29, said he would not have opposed Poolman, whom he called his friend and a competent insurance commissioner. He has no such feelings for Hamm.
“He is just not doing a good enough job,” Schneider said. “I think I’m the best person for the job.”
Hamm believes he has compiled a good record during his brief time in office.
“This job is tough enough, but it’s tougher when folks across the aisle are screaming ‘politics’ at every decision I make,” Hamm said. “But I’m a big boy, I can take it. It is what it is.”
He compared the experience to being a prosecutor. “When you’ve stared eye-to-eye with murderers, it’s no big deal to stare down these guys,” Hamm said.
Hamm and Schneider have dueled about Hamm’s prominent role in a federally funded television advertisement to offer the Insurance Department’s help for seniors with questions about health insurance and prescription drug benefits.
Democrats called the spot a Hamm campaign ad. North Dakota’s Democratic congressional delegation has requested a federal investigation of the ad, which Schneider called “blatantly in-your-face and political.” Hamm said many seniors responded to it.
Schneider says Hamm’s recent denials of rate-increase requests by Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota, the state’s dominant health insurer, were a politically motivated facade intended to make him appear to be a tough consumer advocate.
Hamm said he refused the requests in part because Blue Cross Blue Shield wanted the option of lowering payments to medical providers if the company believed the step was necessary.
Most recently, Schneider has castigated Hamm’s absence at meetings of the state Investment Board, which oversees the investment of more than two dozen funds, including pension funds for teachers and state government employees and the state’s workers compensation benefit fund.
Hamm said an Insurance Department representative attends the meetings and briefs him about what took place.
Schneider’s campaign ads are the “type of sleazy, partisan, in-the-beltway politics that plague our political system and drive people away from the process,” Hamm said.
Schneider believes there’s nothing wrong with the ads. “The only thing negative in this campaign is his record,” he said.
Schneider’s father, John, was a former North Dakota House Democratic leader who served as North Dakota’s U.S. attorney during the Clinton administration. John Schneider died of brain cancer in March 2001.
“Public service is something I’ve aspired to my whole life,” Schneider said.
He questioned his opponent’s motivation for the job, saying Hamm has pushed for appointments to become tax commissioner, U.S. attorney and a state district court judge.
“He waved his flag long enough and finally got appointed to something,” Schneider said.
Hamm says he never pushed to be tax commissioner after incumbent Rick Clayburgh resigned in May 2005. Hoeven appointed Cory Fong as Clayburgh’s successor, and “I have supported Cory right from the start,” Hamm said.
“Public service is what I want to do,” Hamm said. “I am running to be insurance commissioner.”
Hamm and Schneider said they did not have any immediate political aspirations beyond serving as insurance commissioner.
Both men have raised more than $140,000 for the campaign, and Hoeven, who has raised almost $2 million for his own re-election, has appeared in a television ad with Hamm to promote his appointee.
Schneider, who was elected to the North Dakota House in 2006, said he represents about a dozen injured workers weekly in legal disputes with the Workforce Safety and Insurance agency. The agency provides workers’ compensation coverage for businesses.
Just a year out of law school, Hamm helped handle the 1999 murder case of a man convicted of killing an 11-year-old Fargo girl. Kyle Bell is serving a life sentence for the murder of Jeanna North. The case, which received nationwide interest, helped prod North Dakota lawmakers to toughen state laws on tracking sex offenders.
Schneider said Hamm’s “prosecutor mentality” has hurt the relationship with Blue Cross Blue Shield. Hamm calls the Fargo health insurer “a monopoly that’s not working,” saying it represents 90 percent of the state’s health insurance business and that he has worked to encourage more health insurance competition in the state.
The Insurance Department regulates insurance companies that do business in North Dakota, and reviews their rates. It has 46 employees and a two-year budget of $14.5 million. The commissioner is paid $79,571 annually.
Both Hamm and Schneider say they could earn higher salaries in the private sector, but they say the insurance commissioner’s job is not about the money. And both are anxious for the Nov. 4 election to arrive.
“I think we’re both ready for it to be over and to let the voters decide,” Hamm said.
October 22, 2008-Grand Forks Herald
Blue Cross Blue Shield of ND cancels forum amid contract talks
By Patrick Springer
The Forum - 10/22/2008 FARGO
Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota abruptly canceled a media forum to discuss its financial status in the midst of talks with insurance regulators over the terms of its contract with medical providers.
Blue Cross Blue Shield announced Tuesday that the forum, scheduled for Thursday, was canceled, but gave no reason.
Last week, the Blues announced that a financial rating firm had downgraded the health insurer’s outlook from stable to negative. The Blues called attention to the more pessimistic outlook after its request for a 14.9 percent premium rate increase recently was denied.
Denise Kolpack, the North Dakota Blues’ vice president for communications, said the cancellation was due to ongoing talks with the North Dakota Insurance Department.
“We’re continuing to communicate with the Insurance Department,” she said. “We’re trying to find solutions on behalf of our members and providers. That’s really all I can say.”
North Dakota Insurance Commissioner Adam Hamm said he and his staff are involved in ongoing talks concerning language he objects to in Blue Cross Blue Shield’s contract with medical providers.
Earlier this year, the insurer announced it might withhold some payments to providers because of a budget crunch, saying its contract allowed it to do so.
Hamm has said the provision must go, since premium rate decisions depend largely on projections of payments to health providers. The Blues’ refusal to remove the language was “a big part” of the reason he denied its premium hike request.
Once it is, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota can resubmit its premium rate application. If unresolved, the dispute will go before an administrative law judge.
Jasper Schneider, the Democratic challenger who is running against Hamm, said the Blues might have canceled the forum to avoid the appearance that the rate dispute was part of the election campaign.
October 24, 2008-Bismarck Tribune
10-24-2008: news-local
Insurance fundraising is the same
By BRIAN DUGGAN
Bismarck TribuneBoth candidates for North Dakota’s insurance commissioner raised almost the same amount of money since the beginning of the year, according to their campaign finance reports filed this week.
Democrat Jasper Schneider and Republican Adam Hamm both took in about $143,000 since the beginning of the year, with Schneider raising slightly more. Schneider got $143,994. Hamm raised $143,018.
Schneider, a House representative from Fargo, also raised $27,637 in late 2007 after announcing his candidacy for insurance commissioner in November, bringing his total contributions to more than $170,000.
Hamm, who was appointed insurance commissioner by Gov. John Hoeven in October 2007, did not start raising money until 2008.
The reporting period for the reports ended Oct. 15 when Schneider had $19,255 of cash on hand with Hamm holding onto $32,457. Both candidates have continued to raise money since.
About $40,000 of Schneider’s money came from PACs, including $27,000 from the leadership PACs of North Dakota’s congressional delegation in Washington, D.C. Another $30,000 comes from the Democratic-NPL party.
Hamm’s largest donation is $5,000, which came from a Montana business owner who is the brother of Hamm’s former boss at a Fargo law firm. Hamm also took $9,750 in PAC money and another $4,000 from Hoeven.
Neither candidate had to detail campaign donations of $200 or under, according to North Dakota law. Schneider took in $45,039 of those donations to Hamm’s $34,277.
Other dollars
Hoeven outraised his Democratic-NPL opponent Sen. Tim Mathern by more than three-to-one, according to their campaign finance reports filed Thursday.
Hoeven took in $655,776 as of Oct. 15 while Mathern raised $208,988.
Hoeven’s largest donation is $25,500, which came from his father, Jack Hoeven, president of First Western Bank.
Mathern’s largest donors are North Dakota’s Democratic Sens. Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan, whose leadership PACs both gave Mathern $15,000.
Other races where both candidates’ campaign finances were available as of press time Thursday included Department of Public Instruction candidate Wayne Sanstead and Max Laird, as well as state auditor candidates Robert Peterson and Daryl Splichal.
Sanstead, who has the support of the Democrats, took in $18,465, while his independent opponent, Laird, raised $16,045.
Republican auditor incumbent Peterson took in $4,134 while his Democratic opponent, Splichal, raised $14,028.
N.D. voting
The number of North Dakotans casting an early vote continues to rise, according to numbers reported by Secretary of State Al Jaeger on Thursday.
Since last week, the number of people who have cast a ballot has nearly doubled from about 19,200 to 36,600 on Thursday.
About half of the 67,075 ballots distributed to vote-by-mail counties and absentee voters have been turned in as of Thursday, totaling 33,836.
As of noon on Thursday, 2,769 North Dakotans had voted early at their local precinct.
Power calls
North Dakotans contacting the Public Service Commission about their power bills has more than doubled when compared to last year, according to numbers released by the commission on Wednesday.
From September 2007 to August 2008, 200 people contacted the PSC inquiring about a raise in their energy costs, which the commission attributed to a temporary rate increase by Otter Tail Power Co. earlier this year.
A planned outage at one of the power company’s plants lasted longer than expected, forcing Otter Tail to purchase power on the open market, according to the PSC report.
Between 2006 and 2007, 88 people called about their power bills.
Of the 808 total contacts the PSC received this year, only 246 were about telecommunications. That’s down from 507 the previous year.
The commission attributed the decrease in contacts regarding phone companies to fewer questions about billing and more satisfaction with cell phone companies.
October 19, 2008-Bismarck Tribune
10-19-2008: news-local
Parties’ young guns face off
By BRIAN DUGGAN
Bismarck TribuneThe race for insurance commissioner features two relative fresh faces to North Dakota politics: Republican Adam Hamm and Democrat Jasper Schneider.
Both are young. Both are well-known Fargo lawyers. And their respective parties tout them as energetic up-and-comers with North Dakota roots.
Hamm took over as insurance commissioner last year after Gov. John Hoeven tapped him to replace Jim Poolman, who resigned from the post in August 2007.
Schneider is a first-term representative from Fargo, whose family has ties to North Dakota politics.
The latest polling, conducted by the Fargo Forum, suggests the race will be tight with 43 percent of voters still undecided.
University of North Dakota political science professor Dana Harsell agrees the race between Hamm and Schneider will be a close one.
“I think there’s some incumbency advantage going on (for Hamm),” Harsell said. “But Schneider was a well-liked lawmaker. I think that some of that will probably elevate both of them.”
The issues
Hamm and Schneider both want to focus on consumer protection, health care and Workforce Safety and Insurance.
But both candidates make it clear that they have differences, and at times a prickly relationship that was evident at last Wednesday’s debate in Bismarck.
Hamm wants more competition in the state’s health insurance industry. Schneider wants accountability on behalf of insurance companies.
In recent months, Hamm has denied Blue Cross Blue Shield two rate increase requests. He calls the state’s largest insurance provider monopolistic and said he would watch it like a “hawk” if re-elected.
When the Blues asked for 17.3 percent last fall, Hamm ultimately gave them a 9.9 percent increase.
Schneider has hammered Hamm on it ever since, accusing the insurance commissioner of playing politics with the rate increases.
“It was 9.9 percent because it isn’t 10,” Schneider said. “You have to be a regulator first, and a politician second.”
Hamm said that’s a bogus charge, saying Schneider is the one injecting politics into the issue.
“If the lowest possible was 10.1 percent or 10.3 percent, that’s what I would have done,” Hamm said.
Schneider and Hamm also want more oversight over WSI, but argue over who would be a better fit to tackle the issue. Both candidates said they support Measure 4, which would give the governor the power to oversee the department.
Schneider touts his experience on the Human Services Committee during the 2007 legislative session, where he helped draft bills to reform WSI as well as his experience representing injured workers in the courtroom.
“I stood up and represented injured workers and called for reform and called for more political accountability last session,” Schneider said.
He also takes credit for making WSI a campaign issue when he introduced it as part of his platform when he announced in November 2007 that he was going to run for insurance commissioner.
Hamm also drafted a WSI plan of his own, which he made public in February. He said his bill draft is more thoughtful, and that he would have a better chance of influencing a GOP-controlled Legislature because he is a Republican.
Schneider called that idea “hogwash.”
“Adam Hamm is citing partisanship strengths to get things done,” Schneider said at the debate.
Hamm said his plan would treat WSI like any other insurance company the commissioner regulates.
“To me, my focus is always on the future, not to belabor what happened in the last 10 to 12 years,” Hamm said. “Is there something that my department can add?”
Schneider also is quick to criticize Hamm for a public service announcement that Hamm debuted in July, informing North Dakotans about a prescription drug benefits gap.
The public service announcement begins with a shot of Hamm standing in front of the state Capitol and goes on to explain how people who lose prescription drug benefits can get help through the insurance department.
Schneider called the TV spot “blatantly, in-your-face political” because it aired about 100 days before the election.
Hamm said his opponent is resorting to negative campaigning, adding he was doing his job to inform people about prescription drug benefits.
“That ad was a success story,” Hamm said, adding the number of people who applied to get help from the department shot up more than 300 percent after the ad ran in July.
The candidates
Schneider said his biggest influence comes from his father, John Schneider.
His father served as North Dakota’s House minority leader in the 51st and 52nd sessions and later served as a U.S. attorney until 2001, when he died of a brain tumor at 55.
“I came out of that situation with a better perspective on life,” Schneider said, who was 19 at the time of his father’s death. “You only have so much time on this Earth, and you have to make the best of it.”
Rep. Steve Zaiser, D-Fargo, said Schneider is following in his father’s footsteps.
“I think he learned a lot from his father,” said Zaiser, a House member from District 21. “He’s got an amazing political instinct for somebody his age.”
Schneider, who lives in Fargo with his wife and son, also works at his family’s Fargo law firm, Schneider, Schneider and Schneider. He said they should just call it Schneider Law Firm.
Hamm, a Jamestown native, left North Dakota to go school. He wanted to become a law enforcement officer while attending Sam Houston State in Texas, but ultimately decided to return to North Dakota to become a lawyer.
“Big-city life was not for me,” Hamm said.
He started his legal career as a Cass County prosecutor. In 1999 he helped convict Kyle Bell of the 1993 murder of an 11-year-old Fargo girl.
After spending about three years as a prosecutor, Hamm was hired by the Fargo law firm, Anderson, Bottrell, Sanden and Thompson. Attorney Lowell Bottrell interviewed Hamm in 2002 for the job.
Bottrell said he was impressed by Hamm: “Good courtroom skills, confident and very capable.”
Hamm also served as the Cass County Republican Party chairman - a move he said put him on the radar for his move into politics.
Since taking over for Poolman, Hamm has moved to Bismarck, gotten married, bought a new home and started a new job. In the meantime, he’s been busy campaigning.
Wednesday will mark Hamm’s one-year anniversary since taking over as the state’s insurance commissioner. He adds it hasn’t been easy.
“It’s taken some time to get used to the slings and arrows,” Hamm said. “You develop a thick skin and move on.”
October 19, 2008-Grand Forks Herald
Insurance commissioner candidate: Adam Hamm, Republican
Dorreen Yellow Bird
Grand Forks Herald - 10/19/2008 Adam Hamm was appointed insurance commissioner Oct. 22, 2007. A Jamestown, N.D., native, Hamm is a graduate of the UND School of Law. After graduation, he worked with the Cass County State’s Attorney’s office, prosecuting crimes such as murder, robbery, rape and child abuse.
In 2002, he went into private practice with the law firm of Anderson and Bottrell in Fargo, where he was a commercial litigation attorney.
Q. When you look back at your career, what are you most proud of?
A. Three things pop into my mind. The first is working hard to expand competition and the number of choices people have for health insurance in North Dakota. That’s a “behind the scenes” thing you do as the insurance commissioner in terms of encouraging health insurance companies to start actively marketing business.
I and the department have been working to encourage other companies to compete for health insurance business in North Dakota. It’s my hope that within the next four years, we can get four, five or six other national health insurance companies to come into North Dakota to compete with Blue Cross Blue Shield and reduce the 90 percent market share it has.
That will start to open up this market, not only for the consumers but also health care providers by giving people more choices and more options.
No. 2: Aggressively enforcing the law with respect to any agents or companies that are breaking the law. The most notable example would be Larry Atkins. Atkins is current facing 78 felony charges in Fargo. When my office discovered the conduct he was engaging in, we started working and investigating in a collaborative effort with North Dakota Securities Department. Ultimately, we turned over to the Cass County state’s attorney’s office information with respect to criminal activity.
Then, on our end — the administrative end — I had my department move forward immediately to suspend and then revoke his insurance license.
This case involves a number of victims and millions of dollars of fraud and illegal activity. My office is doing everything we can, not only to help with the prosecution or investigation of these matters but also to try to track down any assets that might be available for victims and their families to try to replace what they’ve lost.
I’ll continue to do that over the next four years. Obviously, I have a background as a prosecutor, so enforcing the law is something that comes naturally to me. I guarantee that over the next four years, I will have absolutely no problem in vigorously enforcing the law against any agent or company that’s breaking the law.
The third item is Northwood, N.D. The tornado happened Aug. 26, and I started as insurance commissioner Oct. 22.
Q. Tell us about your involvement as commissioner.
A. When I got here, a lot of what I’ll call the private property issues had been resolved or were in the process of being resolved. Over the course of the past year, there were about 70 informal inquiries to the insurance department for help and 10 formal complaints. A formal complaint is where a consumer actually fills out and signs a complaint against his or her insurance company.
Then, an investigator from my department is assigned and works as a liaison between the consumer and the insurance company to try to come to a resolution.
As result of those inquiries and complaints, my department has been able to recover an additional $250,000 that was directly paid to consumers with the help of the insurance department. But again, a lot of those issues were resolved or on their way to being resolved when I started.
What wasn’t resolved was the dispute between the school and the insurance department’s Fire and Tornado Fund regarding the insurance claim on the school building itself.
For a little background: The school and contents were insured by a policy with the Fire and Tornado Fund. The school had a policy with limits of $8.3 million on the building, if memory serves, about $1.4 million on the contents.
The school got its own engineering expert to go through the building and to determine the cost to repair or replace it, whichever was less — because the policy on the school is not much different than a homeowner’s policy. Their expert determined the school was a total loss and had basically stopped his analysis at $8.9 million, remembering that the policy limits were $8.3 million.
So, their expert was of the opinion that because we’re already at $8.9 million in damages to repair or replace, the fund should just pay at $8.3 million.
But that expert was the same company that the school retained to actually do the rebuilding work. So, the Fire and Tornado Fund got its own expert to act as a check and balance on the system. The company that the fund used was EAPC, which was the engineering firm used for most of the work after the Grand Forks Flood of 1997.
They are, without question, the most widely respected experts on this subject in North Dakota.
They came in and literally went room to room in the school. Then, they came back with their expert opinion that the cost to repair or replace, whichever was less, was $6.9 million.
So, about the time I show up on Oct. 22, there’s a $2 million difference of opinion between the experts.
For the first few weeks that I was insurance commissioner, the Fire and Tornado Fund and the school were comparing and contrasting these two expert opinion reports and trying to resolve it. After about a month, it was pretty clear to me that the process wasn’t working and was heading toward a lawsuit.
So, I interjected myself into the process. Jeff Bitz, who runs the Fire and Tornado Fund; Kevin Coles, the superintendent at Northwood; and I worked for the next six to eight weeks, trying to work through these differences.
It wasn’t just that it was a $2 million difference; there were substantial differences in how each of them got to that number. There were substantial differences on pretty much everything.
Working back and forth over that period of time, we finally got to a point where we resolved it for a total payout of about $8 million, and that includes the payment on the contents. Remember, that was a separate policy.
To me, this was a success story, because we worked through the issues, kept the lines of communication open and got a positive resolution. If we hadn’t done that, it would have ended up on a protracted lawsuit for 18 to 20 months.
The agreement let Northwood move forward in building their school.
Q.What challenges do you think need to be worked on?
A.The No. 1 issue that needs to be worked on in North Dakota is health insurance. It’s top three nationally and top three in North Dakota. As I travel the state, it’s the first thing people want to talk to me about.
We need to move on three big issues in the next four years.
First: competition and choice, which we already touched on. Blue Cross Blue Shield’s total earned premium for the year ending 2007 was $415.8 million. The next closest company is Metaca; their earned premium in 2007 was $17.3 million.
That’s a significant difference.
Q. As long as I’ve lived in North Dakota, the “Blues” has been the major health insurance provider. What has changed?
A. I knew they were a big company before I became commissioner, because I was a health-care consumer like everyone else. I didn’t realize how big until I got here and looked at the numbers.
They’ve always been a dominant player in North Dakota, but it has only been in the past few years that they’ve grown to be on the verge of a monopoly. That’s not working out for the consumers or providers in North Dakota. It has to change with more competition to drive the prices and the deals struck with health care providers.
Health insurance companies say competition works. I want it to get closer and closer to the market regulating itself.
Q. How is the AIG bailout going to affect North Dakota?
A. The companies doing business in North Dakota that are under the umbrella of AIG are solvent. They’re paying claims, and they’re doing just fine. There are several dozen of them, and last year, they collected premiums of about $70 million.
The problem with AIG was the holding company. It was the holding company that made bad investments and engaged in risky behavior.
AIG works like a lot of these conglomerates that are made up of smaller parts. The smaller parts that people care about in North Dakota are insurance companies that people do business with through annuities. Those companies are fine.
And, it’s those companies that predictably will be sold off to other big conglomerates in order to pay off the debt AIG now owes to the federal government.
If there ever was a perfect example of how regulating insurance should be done by states and not by the federal government, AIG is it. Those several-dozen companies I’m talking about are not domiciled in North Dakota. They’re all domiciled in other states or countries. And, they’re obviously regulated by the states that they do business in.
Because of that state regulation, they are solvent, they’re paying claims, and they’re doing normal business.
These companies are the jewels in AIG.
Q. Tell us a little about North Dakota’s Workforce Safety and Insurance agency.
A. I support the measure to WSI back underneath the governor’s control.
Q. Why?
A. When you have an agency such as WSI that affects as many North Dakotans as it does, the chief executive of the state —the governor—should have a role.
WSI started in 1919, and the governor did have control over it all the way up until 1997, when that control was taken away by the Legislature.
Over the past 11 years, it has become clear that we should go back to giving the governor control. But that’s not where it stops. If you look at the proposal that I put out in February, it states that the insurance commissioner can help bring accountability to WSI.
My proposal builds on the expertise that the department has in regulating insurance companies. We make sure claimants are being treated fairly and that the companies have assets to pay claims.
My proposal has been received very well. It dovetails with the governor taking control of the agency. If Measure 4 passes Nov. 4, the WSI director will become a cabinet-level position, the way it used to be. If my bill passes in the next legislative session, we could then review how claimants are being treated and whether WSI is paying its claims and has adequate reserves.
Then, I’d simply forward reports to the governor, and the governor could, if he chose, take action through his executive director. That way, there would be two independent and elected offices having input on the accountability of WSI.
Q. Is there anything we’ve missed?
A. I thoroughly enjoyed doing this job since I started last year. I love public service, being able to help people and trying to make a difference every day. I’d like to do this job for another four years.
October 18, 2008-Fargo Forum
BCBS rating lowered to ‘A-’
By James MacPherson
Associated Press - 10/18/2008 BISMARCK – Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota says one of its key financial ratings has been lowered after the state Insurance Department rejected its request to raise rates. Insurance Commissioner Adam Hamm says the company is financially healthy.
Blues Chief Executive Officer Mike Unhjem said Friday that Standard & Poor’s is giving the company an “A-” rating. Earlier, it had an “A” rating. The agency said Blue Cross’s outlook has gone from stable to negative.
The Blues’ surplus at the end of June was about $220 million, Hamm said.
“They are financially healthy and their surplus is healthy,” the insurance commissioner said.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota is not alone in having lowered financial ratings, Hamm said.
“Insurance companies around the country are being downgraded because of all the financial turmoil in America,” he said.
Unhjem said that if the Blues’ current rates won’t cover payments for medical claims, the company will have to dip into its reserves.
“Contrary to what many people believe, the reason we ask for any rate increase is to ensure we can pay the claims submitted by our members, reimbursing health care providers for health services,” Unhjem said in a statement. “Essentially, these rate denials mean we will experience underwriting losses that, if continued, could ultimately threaten our members and our providers.”
Hamm recently rejected requests for a 14.9 percent rate increase for group policies and a similar request for a group that provides medical coverage for individuals.
He said one factor in his decision was that Blue Cross Blue Shield indicated for the first time that it would cut medical payments to its providers, saying its contracts allowed that. He said the insurer can refile its rate request after it changes its contract language.
“I realize the management of Blue Cross Blue Shield would like to blame me and the Insurance Department for the rate increase denials, but the reality is the denial came about because of their action,” Hamm said. “The ball is back in their court.”
The Blues statement said the company plans to hold “an open media forum” Thursday to further discuss its financial status.
October 16, 2008-Jamestown Sun
Letter to the editor: Schneider’s attacks on Hamm are unfair
Frank Wald, Dickinson, N.D.
The Jamestown Sun - 10/16/2008 Jasper Schneider is the Democrat-NPL challenger for the office of state insurance commissioner. He is viciously attacking the incumbent commissioner, Adam Hamm, for denying BlueCross BlueShield’s request for a 14.9 percent premium increase on their group health-insurance policies.
This unwarranted cheap shot is transparent political grandstanding. Further, Schneider should have realized that Hamm had no control over the timing of BCBS request. The funding of the public notice is also a non-issue.
Hamm based his denial upon the results of a completely nonpolitical analysis conducted by the North Dakota Insurance Department’s chief actuary. Thus far, BCBS has failed to justify its request. Hamm was correct in denying it.
Section 26.1-30-19 of the North Dakota Century Code outlines the commissioner’s duties and responsibilities and it says, in part, “A Form [rate increase request] must be disapproved if the benefits provided are unreasonable in relation to the premium charge.” Schneider has revealed he has no clue as to the responsibilities and duties of the insurance commissioner. I would submit that he should have at least a basic knowledge of the duties of the office he is seeking.
I also find it curious that Schneider, a young trial lawyer, would choose this issue for his political attacks. Strangely, he chose to criticize Hamm for protecting North Dakota policyholders from unnecessary rate increases! This is especially puzzling in the middle of an election campaign. Isn’t it amazing what some people will do for a vote?
Schneider’s unjustified attack simply demonstrates Hamm was doing his job and is not in the pockets of the insurance companies that he regulates.
Schneider’s desperate attacks against Hamm remind me of a story about a young lawyer who was about to leave his office to try his first case. A senior partner of the law firm intercepted him on the way out, saying, “Young man, let me give you some advice. If you don’t know the facts, argue the law. If you don’t know the law, argue the facts. If you don’t know either, abuse your opponent.” The evidence leads me to believe Schneider has learned this trick well.
Frank Wald
Dickinson, N.D.