California Commissioner Announces Run for State Attorney General
October 3, 2015 by David Pilla, news editor, BestWeek: David.Pilla@ambest.com
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Two-term California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones announced his candidacy to run for state attorney general in the 2018 election.
“I have dedicated my life and my legal training to protecting California families,” Jones said in a statement announcing his candidacy. “I am ready and well prepared to take on this challenge.”
Parke Skelton, a spokesman for Jones’ attorney general campaign, told Best’s News Service there are three other people with open committees for attorney general. But he added it is “not likely that any of them will run. They are all former state legislators who, due to state laws, needed a committee where they could park surplus campaign funds.”
Skelton said Jones will not be able to run for a third term as insurance commissioner once his second term ends in 2018. A state Insurance Commission spokeswoman declined to comment.
Jones, who is serving his second four-year term as insurance commissioner, said he won both statewide elections by large margins.
His campaign said in a statement that as insurance commissioner, Jones “is a proven statewide law enforcement leader. He leads over 300 law enforcement officers in combating insurance fraud and other crimes and protecting the public interest.”
His campaign added Jones starts the race for attorney general with $2.6 million cash on hand in his prior campaign account, which can be used for the attorney general race and a base of support throughout the state.
“Jones’ efforts in contesting unfair insurance premium increases have resulted in over $2 billion in savings for California consumers,” his campaign said. “Jones stands up to powerful interests. He has taken on big health insurance companies, property insurance companies, life insurance companies, corrupt public officials, big hospitals committing fraud, and a host of other special interests. He won’t back down from a fight and will use the Attorney General’s office to stand up for Californians.”
In April, Jones called Anthem Blue Cross’ 8.7% average premium increase on individual grandfathered policies unjustified, arguing state law needs to give him authority to stop the rate hikes (Best’s News Service, April 23, 2015). Jones asked Anthem to lower the rate increase, which would have led to about $33.6 million in savings for consumers, but Anthem refused to change its hike for nearly 170,000 people with individual grandfathered plans, he said. Grandfathered policies were bought before March 23, 2010, and exempt from requirements of the Affordable Care Act.
The rate increase, which went into effect April 1, was as high as 24.9% for some policyholders, Jones said in a statement. The health insurer has raised rates on the grandfathered policies by an average 26.5% over the past two years.
In January, Jones issued an emergency regulation to establish stronger requirements for health insurers to create and maintain sufficient provider networks that give their policyholders timely access to medical care (Best’s News Service, Jan. 7, 2015).
At his inauguration and after he was sworn in for a second term in January 2015, Jones’s regulation addresses problems with access to doctors, hospitals, and other medical providers in 2014, as many health insurers reduced their medical provider networks and/or shifted to offering exclusive provider organizations, health insurance with no out-of-network benefits, the state Department of Insurance said at the time.
Jones, a Democrat, was first elected insurance commissioner in 2010. Before that, he was a member of the California State Assembly for six years and previously was a member of the Sacramento City Council.
He had also been special assistant and counsel to U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno and worked as a legal aid lawyer providing assistance to those who could not afford representation.
