NC Insurance Commissioner's Leadership Highlighted on Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show"

For Wayne Goodwin Cutting Insurance Rates, Ordering Refunds

Wayne Goodwin, North Carolina's elected Commissioner of Insurance, has reached another cultural, personal and political milestone: He found himself referenced this week on the highly-acclaimed national news/comedy program, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. (Covered in greater written detail, inter alia, on The Progressive Pulse and here, here, and here.)

In front of many millions of TV viewers, it was said:

"We have empowered state insurance commissioners to review the rate hikes that are taking place in states. And in some states like North Carolina, they have already used it and rolled back premium increases by 25 percent."

For further context, go to prior coverage at other news and blog links here and here.

Goodwin has received further high praise and recognition for cutting health insurance rates by approximately 25% from what was filed by the insurance carrier and for ordering a return of $156 million back to 215,000+ North Carolina consumers. This is a capstone to the plethora of positive feedback the Tar Heel insurance regulator has received over the last five weeks.

And if one were to include other lines of insurance such as automobile and workers compensation, Goodwin has cut rates and saved more than $650 million and ordered refunds totalling $265+ million, plus recovered more than $25 million more for victims of insurance fraud, all for North Carolina consumers, families and small businesses in less than two years in office.

Insurance Commissioner Goodwin Criss-Crosses North Carolina

Though Not on Ballot in 2010, Statewide Elected Official Barnstorms All Over

Wayne Goodwin says he doesn't just meet consumers and voters during his election year, but each and every day.

To that end, he has picked up the pace of criss-crossing North Carolina from east to west, back and forth over the last several months.

Sometimes he's speaking to a group of 15 members of a civic club.

Another day he's bringing down the house in front of 1,000 senior citizens or small business owners at a conference.

Then there are the political events where he gets hundreds of people to respond back and engage with him as if they were in church.

And all in-between Goodwin informs, implores, cajoles, and makes his audiences laugh while proving each time that what makes him tick is good government, common sense leadership, consumer protection, transparency, doing what's right, and 21st century populism.

In the months of September and October alone, some of the Tar Heel places Insurance Commissioner Goodwin will have visited are:

*Carteret County Underwriters, Morehead City
*IIANC of Charlotte/Mecklenburg
*Roanoke Rapids Valley Chamber of Commerce
*Southeast Raleigh
*Anson County Democratic Party, Wadesboro
*Piedmont Triad 2010 Aging Conference, Greensboro
*Pharmacy Leaders' Forum, Greensboro
*Ashe Co. Democratic Party, West Jefferson
*Ashe County Homebuilders Association, Jefferson
*Gibson Fire Dept, Scotland County
*Employee Benefits Brokers Seminar, Charlotte
*NC Retail Pharmacists Annual Mtg, Raleigh
*Statewide Fire Drill/Fire Prevention Month, Cleveland Co. Fair, Shelby
*Tri-Community Fire Dept., New Bern
*Independent Insurance Agents of NC (IIANC) Annual Convention, Asheville
*Western NC Fire Training Center, Woodfin
*NC Assn of Health Underwriters - WNC (NCAHU), Asheville
*Governor's Aging Conference, Research Triangle Park
*NC State Fair (multiple times)
*Morrison-Deane-Goodman Annual Dinner, Hamlet
*East Carolina University (ECU), Greenville

Even more appearances and opportunities for citizens to meet him are slated in the coming months for coastal and eastern Carolina, as well as throughout the state.

And then there is all the activity he does actually in his office: ordering hundreds of millions of dollars in insurance refunds and rate reductions, fighting insurance fraud, protecting consumers, penalizing insurance companies for violations of the law, being a watchdog for insurance company solvency, approving and delivering grant funds to fire departments, keeping North Carolina ahead of the curve in many ways, and generally keeping a close eye on the work of his administration.

Suffice it to say, this state insurance commissioner - heralded as the best insurance commissioner in the country in Hamlet last night by Lt. Governor Walter Dalton and one of the best state insurance regulators in the nation by the President of the United States last month - is one of the hardest working, most accessible, highest octane state officials you'll ever find.

Searing: Goodwin Supports Consumer Advocates

Adam Searing of the NC Justice Center had this to say on the Progressive Pulse, a NC Policy Watch blog, yesterday:

The nation’s state insurance commissioners, meeting together today in Orlando, rejected attempts to weaken at the state level the federal health reform requirement that health insurers spend 80- 85% of the premium dollars they collect on actually providing medical care. Good for them and good for NC’s Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin for supporting consumer advocates like the NC Justice Center and beating back industry efforts to weaken these standards.

AARP Highlights NC Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin in National Publication

AARP has just published an enlightening national article - at this link here - highlighting North Carolina's public financing of elections program, which currently involves three Council of State offices (including Insurance Commissioner) and statewide judicial races. The post focuses on two views of the program: one by Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin, a proponent, and the other by State Senator Phil Berger, an opponent.(Photos by D.L. Anderson)
The AARP bulletin piece, authored by Sue Price Johnson, is entitled "State Leads Trend Toward Publicly Financed Campaigns: More candidates are discovering the benefits of not relying on special interests."