Denn aims high as he concludes four years regulating insurance industry
It’s hard to think about health without thinking about health insurance. Besides gas and food, it’s a top priority for most adults. Everything from how to pay for it, to what it covers, to its limitations — health care is a big concern for many Americans and Delawareans. And rightly so — because without your health, what do you have?
Coastal point • File Photo
State insurance commissioner Matt Denn.
Now before you let your eyes glaze over in trying to imagine how you are going to stay awake for an entire article devoted to health insurance, relax — it will be fun! We’re going to meet Matt Denn, Delaware’s insurance commissioner.
Denn was born in Delaware and grew up in the state before moving to California at the beginning of his high-school years, due to his father’s job. After attending undergraduate school in California and law school in Connecticut, he came back to Delaware to settle down. He met his wife, Michele, at the Delaware beaches and proposed at Dolle’s on the boardwalk in Rehoboth Beach.
Just five days before he was sworn in as insurance commissioner, the couple welcomed their twin sons, Zachary and Adam. The twins were preemies and spent time in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) before being able to go home.
“I spent the first couple of weeks running the office out of my car, in front of Christiana Hospital,” Denn recalled.
After that rough start to his new position, he found his way and settled in as commissioner. Over the course of the three and a half years he has been in office, some major changes have taken place — changes of which Denn said he is proud.
“I am allowed to regulate some types of insurance — for instance auto rates. Since 2005, average rates have been flat. They had been going up in double digits before I started. In some cases, we have seen decreases and, in most cases, only small single-digit increases.”
Another area Denn can regulate is worker’s compensation rates. “Last year, we cut premiums by about 20 percent.”
Another important thing that Denn has seen accomplished in his term is a change in homeowner’s insurance, something near and dear to those living in coastal Delaware.
“We were the only state in the region where your homeowner’s insurance could be canceled if you had a claim against it. And when you shopped for new insurance, you would be put on a national database and charged a higher rate. For three years, we worked to put at least some restrictions on that and got a bill passed. So we went from last in the country to fifth or sixth toughest in the country.”
Denn said the main changes were that homeowners could have two weather-related claims in a three-year period and at least one non-weather related claim without having to worry about getting dropped or charged more. “And that’s particularly important for people at the beach, who already have limited options,” he emphasized.
Another major success of Denn’s tenure as insurance commissioner has been the passage of a law that restricts insurance companies in how they use consumers’ credit ratings.
“We were last in the country for that in how lax we were, and in two years we have again gotten to be the fifth or sixth toughest state,” explained Denn. “Now, if you are a current customer and something bad happens to your credit, they cannot consider it. It lets us do more for the consumers.”
The job does not come without pitfalls, though. For instance, the commissioner has no authority to regulate health insurance rates. And this is one of the main changes Denn has tried make during his term.
“We are only one of 10 states that doesn’t allow the insurance commissioner to, in some way, regulate health insurance rates,” he said.
That means that, in essence, health insurance rates are unregulated in Delaware.
“It can be frustrating,” said Denn. “There are limitations on what you can do. I have to live within the laws that the General Assembly and the governor enact.”
“We’ve done a good job,” he added of efforts on his end. “For three years, I had a bill to change the law and it passed in the state senate overwhelmingly — but not the House of Representatives. “I would love to have it changed. We really could, or my successor could [make a difference]. It’s not going to fix everything, but it could have some impact. That’s been the only real frustration.”
Denn’s future involves running for lieutenant governor and he maintains that regulation of health insurance in Delaware is an issue he plans to pursue. “You can bet I’ll still be plugging away,” he promised.
Denn suggested that Delawareans who want to encourage their representatives to make changes should visit the department’s Web site to find out about bills set to be considered by legislators and to “put your legislator on the spot.”
“The only way they get passed is if your legislators feel like they are on the spot and are accountable,” he said.
Aside from working for such legislative changes to the system, on a typical day the insurance commissioner can be found regulating what insurance companies that do business in Delaware are doing.
“[This can be done]either in the larger sense — I have imposed some very significant fines on health insurance companies, for example, that failed to pay claims in a timely way — or the individual sense, as in intervening on behalf of individual people who are being treated unfairly.”
Denn oversees a department of 170 to 200 employees and contractors at any given time, and from January to June spends much of his time traveling the state and visiting Legislative Hall, building support to get bills passed in the General Assembly.
“I also spend a lot of time trying to develop regulations and statutes to ensure that people are treated fairly by insurance companies and that our rates stay under control,” he explained.
He pointed out that Delaware taxpayers do not pay for work done by the employees and contractors of the Insurance Commissioner’s Office, including his own salary. Since many of the contractors are doing financial examinations of the many companies that house their businesses in Delaware, the salaries are instead funded by surcharges on those insurance company’s examinations. “We’re the best bargain in the business,” he joked.
Although being insurance commissioner was never really on his radar as a life goal, Denn does feel comfortable in his role in helping people.
“When I was 4 years old, I would lie in bed and dream of being insurance commissioner,” he deadpanned. “No, I always knew I wanted to be involved in public service. I wanted to play professional baseball, but when I was about 11 or 12 I realized that wasn’t in the cards. I can’t say it was a childhood dream [to be insurance commissioner], but even when I was in the private sector I was always doing a lot of public service. So when the opportunity came up in 2004, I jumped on it. And it’s the best job I’ve had. I’m glad I did it.”
Interestingly, in Delaware, insurance commissioner is an elected office. In most states, it is an appointed position. Denn has been in the office since January 2005 and will end his four-year term this December. As for his future, Denn is hopeful no matter what happens.
“Either I’ll be sworn in as lieutenant governor in January or I’ll be back practicing law,” he said.
For more information on recent or future legislative activity or for general information, visit the Web site at delawareinsurance.gov. The main phone number is (302) 674-7300.
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Info you should know
The Insurance Commissioner’s Office in Delaware consists of four divisions: Bureau of Company Examination, Rehabilitation & Guaranty, Producer Licensing & Continuing Education Division, Fraud Prevention Bureau, and Consumer Services & Investigations Division.
It is under this Consumer Services and Investigations Division that much of the work regarding health insurance is done. The main goals of this division are to provide information on how to make decisions that can lower the cost of insurance and increase the value the consumer receives; assisting consumers in resolving conflicts with insurance companies, health coverage providers, and agents; providing arbitration hearings as a low-cost alternative to civil litigation to resolve disputed consumer claims; and investigating concerns regarding all types of insurance, and utilizing consumer input to review market trends, statute and rule violations, and to develop changes to the insurance law.