Insurance Commissioner

I was very disturbed to read the attribution mistakenly given to me and the Health Insurance Assn. of America (HIAA) by Irene Wielawski in her article “Garamendi Plans Overhaul of Insurance Department” (Jan. 18). I never said nor implied that either I or HIAA was “less than pleased” with Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi’s comments. In fact what I said was just the opposite--that we were looking forward to working with the commissioner and his staff. I told Wielawski that some of the insurance commissioner’s plans for the reform of the small group health market were very similar to the HIAA’s “Financing Health Care for All Americans” proposal--approved by HIAA’s board of directors more than two years ago. The quote attributed to me was edited, which made it ambiguous. I did indicate that the commissioner must have traditional consumer interests at heart--such as affordability and timeliness of claims payment. However, I also indicated that the commissioner must allow for conditions under which insurance companies can expect to maintain solvency requirements and thereby assure the availability of adequate funding to pay for claims.

JAN ANDREA MEISELS

State Affairs Associate

HIAA, Agoura Hills