Candidates pledge to improve consumer advocacy at Oklahoma Insurance Department

OKLAHOMA CITY —  As he’s criss-crossed the state over the past few months, Craig MacIntyre said there’s a growing perception among Oklahomans that insurance feels like a scam.

About a decade ago, MacIntyre said about 1 in 100 people would have raised their hand when asked if insurance felt like a scam. Recently, when he spoke to a room of over 100 people while campaigning for insurance commissioner, every single person raised their hand.

MacIntyre said that’s concerning because “insurance is the backbone of the financial system of Oklahoma” and a requirement to drive a car or own a home.

“So we’re mandating that the consumer purchase a product that they have no faith in,” he said. “Nothing good is going to come out of that.”

The Tecumseh Democrat is running against Republican Bob Sullivan on the Nov. 3 ballot to become the state’s next insurance commissioner. Republican Glen Mulready, who has held the job for the past eight years, cannot run again due to term limits.

Amid soaring premiums, higher deductibles and issues with the insurance claims process, both Sullivan and MacIntyre are vowing to not only lower rates, which are the highest in the nation, but to fix the consumer advocacy division at the State Department of Insurance.

Both men agree the division, which is supposed to help Oklahomans address issues with their insurance policies, is not doing enough to advocate for insured consumers.

MacIntyre, 60, who has worked over half his life in a variety of insurance industry roles, said he’s dismayed at how bad rates and the claims process seem to be getting.

He said the Oklahoma Insurance Department has only two constitutionally mandated responsibilities — implement and enforce the state’s insurance laws and to advocate for consumers.

“I think that the department has done a poor job on recognizing poor claims service and bad acting on the part of insurance companies relative to policyholders,” MacIntyre said. “I think we need to beef up the consumer advocacy side, and when complaints are made, they need to be taken more seriously.”

He said insurance companies also need to be protected from bad actors. That includes providing more oversight of the roofing industry and investigating and prosecuting organized crime rings that are purposely causing vehicle accidents in the state to try to collect insurance payouts. 

MacIntyre said he believes all roofers doing business in the state should be required to be licensed and insured. He said some residential roofers are not required to be, but they should be held to the same standards as commercial ones. Oklahomans deserve to know that whoever is working on their roof is doing it properly and if something goes wrong, they’ll be covered, he said.

“Most people think that (the insurance department’s role is) only to advocate for consumers, but we also have to make sure insurance companies can stay in business and are not spending a ridiculous excess amount of money on fraudulent activity, so that the rates can be assisted to stay low,” MacIntyre said.

In addition to the need to lower insurance rates, Sullivan, 41, of Inola, said he’s heard “loud and clear” from Oklahomans that the consumer advocacy part of the Insurance Department is not working well. He said when people contact the consumer advocacy division, they feel like nothing ever gets accomplished. 

“You get one of two form letters to fill out and then it goes into some innocuous black hole, never to be heard from again,” Sullivan said.

The Oklahoma Insurance Department did not return an email seeking comment.

Sullivan, an independent agent and broker who works with clients in over a dozen states, said very few people compared to the number of disgruntled Oklahomans are filing complaints with the Insurance Department because they feel disenfranchised with the process. The most frequent complaint is claim denials, but they also include how long it takes for an adjuster to respond and poor communication from an insurer, he said.

Sullivan said there were efforts in the state Legislature to shorten the window insurance companies have to respond, but those didn’t advance. Despite that, Sullivan said he’ll press for faster responses.

He said the consumer advocacy division must have the vision that they work for the four million people of Oklahoma, not insurers, and if someone calls with a problem, they should find a solution.

“Without that type of aggressive advocacy, you leave consumers with no other reproach but to go lawyer up and sue the insurance company, and some people do that successfully, but ultimately it slows things down, it drives up costs,” Sullivan said.

He said if the agency can do a better job finding meaningful solutions for consumers, not only will that increase consumer confidence, but it will also result in a “dramatic improvement to the cost” of insurance, which will be reflected in better rates down the line.

“But we have to have that attitude of being there to protect the consumers,” he said. “That’s why we have an insurance commissioner to balance a very uneven playing field where the insurance companies are seemingly holding all the cards.”

The general election is Nov. 3. Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. In-person early voting begins Wednesday and runs through Saturday.