John Morrison (Montana politician)

John Morrison (born 1961) is an American politician who was the Montana State Auditor and Insurance and Securities Commissioner from 2001-2008, and currently an attorney, writer and businessman. He was the founding president of the National Alliance of State Health CO-OPs (NASHCO), which includes all “Consumer Operated and Oriented Plans” authorized and funded under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.^[1] He is also co-founder and vice-chair of the Montana Health CO-OP, one of the first CO-OPs to be approved for funding by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.^[2] Morrison is a senior partner at Morrison Sherwood Wilson Deola, a public interest law firm based in Helena, Montana.^[3] In 2006 he ran unsuccessfully in the Montana Democratic primary for the US Senate nomination.

Early legal career

In the 1990s, Morrison was lead Montana counsel in the state’s Tobacco litigation and represented the New York Times, NBC and other national media in the Unabomber case.^[4] Morrison and his wife are co-authors of a Montana political history book: Mavericks: The Lives and Battles of Montana’s Political Heroes.^[5] Morrison also authored or co-authored other published works on topics ranging from health insurance^[6] to climate change.^[7]

Montana State Auditor and Insurance and Securities Commissioner

Morrison served as Montana State Auditor and State Insurance and Securities Commissioner from 2001–2008.^[8] He promoted and implemented Insure Montana, a small business health insurance pool with discounted premiums paid for by an increase in the tobacco tax.^[9] Morrison had been advocating the use of increased tobacco tax revenue to reduce health insurance premiums since 2002.^[10] Insure Montana won national awards,^[11] and became a model for the premium assistance provisions of the Affordable Care Act.^[12] John Morrison also drafted Montana’s Initiative 155 (I-155) and led the campaign that created Healthy Montana Kids, which instituted a broad reform and massive expansion of children’s health coverage.^[13] In the first year of operation, it brought over $200 million in new federal matching dollars into Montana and covered 10,000 additional children.^[14] Healthy Montana Kids now covers 91,000 Montana Children.^[15]

As Insurance Commissioner, Morrison banned “discretionary clauses” in group health and disability insurance plans and successfully defended the ban at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in Standard Ins. Co v. Morrison, 584 F. 3d 837 (2009).^[16] Through the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), Morrison led passage of a similar model law that has been adopted in more than a dozen states, including New York, California, Michigan, Illinois, and Texas.^[17] Morrison also led NAIC opposition to Association Health Plans^[18] and fraudulent health insurance.^[19]

Morrison chaired the Health Insurance and Managed Care Committee and the Market Regulation and Consumer Affairs Committee of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, as well as the NAIC’s September 11 emergency task force.^[20] As the NAIC’s International Vice Chair for Asia, Morrison helped establish the relationship between U.S. and Chinese insurance regulators and, with the US Trade Representative, represented the U.S. in the US-China Insurance Dialogues, WTO Doha Round, in Hangzhou, PRC.^[21]

After leaving office, Morrison was appointed by the Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner to replace former Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop on the boards of the Senior Health Care Oversight Trust and the Senior Health Insurance Company of Pennsylvania (SHIP) and chaired both boards in 2011.^[22] Morrison also serves on the board of the Center for Health Policy Development, parent organization of the National Academy of State Health Policy.^[23]

2006 Montana U.S. Senate Election

In 2006, Morrison was a candidate for the U.S. Senate in a contested Democratic primary with Jon Tester. Morrison initially polled ahead of incumbent Republican Conrad Burns,^[24] and was leading in the primary race, but it narrowed to a "deadlock” a week prior to the election.^[25] Morrison was beaten in the Democratic primary by Tester,^[26] who defeated Burns in November.^[27]

During the Democratic Primary, it was revealed that Morrison had an extramarital affair in 1998.^[28] Morrison and his wife remained together despite the affair.^[29] According to the Missoula Independent, the woman involved later married the principal of companies investigated by the state auditors office while Morrison was there. Former staffers reported to the Independent that they repeatedly advised Morrison to stay out of the case entirely to avoid the appearance of conflict of interest, but they felt that he had not.^[30] Morrison's affair reportedly did not affect the outcome of the probe, and the individual investigated was convicted of fraud. The case in question was handled by outside attorney Beth Baker due to Morrison's various involvements. Baker said she was given significant discretion in handling the case.^[28]

National Alliance of State Health CO-OPs

Morrison announced the first round of federal low interest loans to CO-OPs in February 2012.^[31] In 2012 Morrison, as President of the National Alliance of State Health CO-OPs, argued against Congressional Republicans who were pushing to cut the loan funds from the federal budget in April 2012.^[32] After $2 billion in loans had been made to launch 24 CO-OPs serving 24 states, remaining funds were rescinded as part of the December 31, 2012 “fiscal cliff” deal. Morrison criticized the cuts, but said the 24 existing CO-OPs would still increase competition and innovation in the health insurance marketplace.^[33] Morrison has called for the CO-OP option to be available to all Americans.^[34] In October 2013, Morrison released a study showing that premiums were 8.4% lower in states that had a CO-OP than in states that did not.^[35] In February 2014, Morrison estimated that 300,000 Americans had signed up for CO-OPs to date despite early technical problems in the federal Marketplace and many state based exchanges.^[1]

After meeting with CO-OP leaders and Secretary Kathleen Sibelius at the White House, Morrison reported that he had been assured that the Obama administration would support CO-OPs if they continued to grow. By 2015, over 1 million Americans were covered by CO-OPs and average health insurance premiums in CO-OP states were 12% lower than in non-CO-OP states. In late 2015, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that it would pay less than 13% of promised “risk corridor” payments to insurers, a $2.4 billon shortfall, which took hundreds of millions of dollars off CO-OP balance sheets and required many to close. A Commonwealth Fund paper reported, “obstacles—resulting from policy decisions made during implementation of the ACA—have made business harder for CO-OPs.” Morrison testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee in November 2015 that CO-OPs had already saved consumers and taxpayers more than the total cost of the CO-OP program and actions by Congress and the Administration undermining the CO-OPs would cost Americans billons of dollars in future savings.^{[36][37][38][39][40][41][42]}

References