Colorado Insurance Commissioner Salazar Leaving Post to Direct State Regulatory Agencies
July 18, 2017 by Thomas Harman
DENVER – Colorado Insurance Commissioner Marguerite Salazar is leaving the post July 24 to become the new executive director of the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies.
“Few are more deserving and capable of this position than Marguerite,” Hickenlooper said in a statement. “She has guided the Division of Insurance through a time of great change in our country and has helped Colorado be a leader in the industry. Her experience in one of the agency’s divisions provides a steady and guiding hand during this time of transition.”
Salazar held the insurance post for four years and was present for the startup of Colorado’s state-run health exchange, Connect for Health Colorado. In 2015, she prevented Colorado HealthOP, the Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan from selling individual insurance on the state exchange. She cited financial difficulties created by the federal government’s prior announcement that the CO-OP would receive a small fraction of what was expected from the federal risk corridor program (Best’s News Service, Oct. 16, 2015).
Before becoming commissioner, Salazar had been appointed in 2010 by President Barack Obama as Regional Director for the Department of Health and Human Services and to oversee Affordable Care Act implementation in Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.
Salazar began her career by forming her own business as a mental health therapist at Access Social Work Services and later served more than 20 years as president and chief executive officer at Valley-Wide Health Systems, a community health system that served Coloradans in 22 primary care and dental clinics.
(By Thomas Harman, Washington Bureau manager, BestWeek: Tom.Harman@ambest.com)
