Talking to Insurance Commissioner Candidate Stephen Northington

Monday, I had a chance to sit down and talk to Stephen Northington, who is running for the GOP nomination for Insurance Commissioner. The sad thing is that I had two recorders in my pocket, and forgot to turn either one of them on!

Northington is one of only two currently active insurance agents in the race (the other is John Mamalakis of Savannah, who I didn’t even know had filed until both Northington and Gerry Purcell, another candidate, brought him up), yet he will be the first to tell you that there is much more to the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance and Fire Safety than just insurance. One aspect of the office he has incorporated into his campaign is the need for more fire investigators and a lab for them. He believes that the role is both an administrator role overseeing the office, but also to assist in policy making via making recommendations to the Governor and General Assembly.

As an active insurance agent, Northington feels he is supremely qualified to detect the issues that will arise when either Congress or the General Assembly bring up or pass insurance-related bills, and he was able to point out some things that I as a non-insurance guy would certainly never think of asking about potential bills.

We also discussed the issue of insurance across State lines, and honestly I felt Northington had some great points here. Specifically, that if your insurance company is in another State and you feel the need to sue them, you have to travel to that other State to do so – and you have to do it for every single court appearance. I know living in SWGA it is hard enough to get to Atlanta, much less Des Moines! He also discussed this issue as it relates to the so-called “States’ Rights” movement. He brought up the fact that the US Constitution is very clear on this point: an explicit power of the US Congress is to regulate interstate commerce. Meaning that if insurance is bought and sold across State lines, it is automatically within the Congress’ authority to control – not the States’.

Finally, we also discussed the issue of mandates. Currently, Georgia has 45 mandates of things that insurance companies MUST provide coverage for – even if you don’t need it. One classic example brought up a few times in discussions with LP-Ga Chairman Daniel Adams is that males are forced to pay for pregnancy coverage. Not exactly something a male will ever use, right? Northington said he supports reducing these mandates and letting Georgians pick the exact coverage they need.

Overall, it was a great conversation with always-great good (Riverside BBQ in Albany), and I plan to talk to him again as the campaign progresses.