There are more and more reasons why insurance prices and rates are going up, like these flood waters in Lumberton in 2018 that were caused by Hurricane Florence.
Natasha Marcus, a Democrat from Mecklenburg who has been a state senator for three terms, is running against Mike Causey, a Republican who has held the seat twice before.
He or she is a member of the Council of State and is in charge of the North Carolina Department of Insurance. The Department of Insurance oversees the insurance business, takes care of customer complaints, and gives licenses to insurance brokers. When there is a presidential election, the commissioner is chosen by the whole state, and they serve for four years.
This is a very important time for the commissioner’s seat because many people can’t afford the high rents and home prices that are being talked about across the country. When insurance rates go up, housing prices can go up by a lot. Vice President Kamala Harris, who is running for president as a Democrat, has made building more affordable housing a central part of her plan.
An aggressive challenger
Marcus has been very critical of Causey’s record on raising insurance rates, calling him “Rate Hike Mike” and saying that he is a “insurance industry insider” who has forgotten that he was “elected by the people to be their voice.” The race between the two has been very heated.
Cassiey has raised rates an unprecedented number of times in his eight years in office, and two more are on the way. On her campaign website, Marcus said, “He refuses to hold public hearings.” “Instead of a clear process where insurance companies have to show proof under oath and be questioned by others to support higher rates, Causey skips the public hearings and instead makes private settlements that let rates go up over and over again.”
Marcus told PBS North Carolina that it’s important for the commissioner to speak up for people in North Carolina.
Marcus said, “I think that’s what the people of North Carolina need and should have in their insurance commissioner—not someone who works for insurance companies.” “The current insurance commissioner, who is running against me, used to work as a lobbyist for the insurance industry. He has a lot of connections and, in my opinion, is too close to the insurance companies.”
Climate change and its impacts on the industry
Climate change is a problem that is becoming more and more important in the insurance world, but the two candidates don’t seem to agree on how to deal with it.
A new high of $151 billion has been hit in annual losses from natural disasters around the world, with non-crop losses making up $119 billion, according to Business Insider. Also, the average exposure growth over the last five years is projected to be 7.2%. This includes increases in the replacement values of homes due to new construction and inflation in the countries that were modeled.
In line with this trend, Marcus’s campaign website has a section called “Strengthen Our Communities Against Natural Disasters” that talks about how politicians need to do something about many of the effects of climate change, such as “rising sea level, more frequent storms, and chronic flooding.”
Instead, Causey’s campaign website and the Department of Insurance website don’t say anything about climate change. This is similar to other Republican candidates and officials who have played down or questioned the truth of the problem. Causey has, however, talked a lot and in public about how important it is for people in North Carolina to plan ahead and get enough insurance to protect their property from damage from natural disasters and harsh weather.
Causey has been in the insurance business for over 25 years and has been an agent, manager, supervisor, and owner of an insurance firm. Marcus is also a member of the Senate’s Budget, Education, Redistricting and Elections, Commerce and Insurance, and Judiciary committees. She worked as a lawyer at the Brooks Pierce law firm after getting her law degree from Duke University.
Marcus said that the commissioner’s job is to look out for people’s best interests, help keep rates as low as possible, and keep the insurance market full of choices.
We don’t want to become Florida, so we don’t want to drive insurance companies out of our state. Instead, Marcus said, “we want them to want to write policies here, and in order to do that, they’re entitled to earn a reasonable profit, reasonable… but not whatever they want.” There are rules in the market because everyone needs to have homeowner’s, car, and workers’ compensation insurance. The prices should be fair.
A lowkey incumbent
Causey lost four times when he ran for commissioner: in 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2012. But in 2016, he beat the Democrat who was already in office, Wayne Goodwin, and was re-elected in 2020. He talked to Kelly McCullen on PBS NC in July and said that thinking about raising rates is like balancing a check list.
Causey said, “Of course, no one wants any price increase. You don’t want your groceries to cost more or your gas to cost more.” “But we’ve seen really bad things happen because of inflation, especially in the last few years.”
Causey said that the North Carolina Rate Bureau is doing a good job of setting property and casualty rates for the state’s insurance business. All property and casualty insurance companies in North Carolina pay premiums through the Rate Bureau. The Rate Bureau is a non-profit, unincorporated rating bureau that was formed by the General Assembly and is not part of the Department of Insurance.
What the insurance business thinks of the office is not all positive. There are people who want things to stay the same and people who want the free market to be less controlled. Causey said that some people say they would rather have a mix of the two.
Causey said that he has worked with the legislature and the Rate Bureau to give insurance companies more freedom and options while he has been in office.
It’s hard to argue with North Carolina’s track record over the years. “We’ve had a pretty strong and stable insurance market, and the Rate Bureau system has worked well,” Causey said. “I don’t think the legislature wants to get rid of the Rate Bureau or make big changes.”
Causey has had disagreements with the state’s Republican legislative leadership in the past. The most recent one was over a bill passed in 2023 that let Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, the state’s long-standing health insurance nonprofit, move its assets to a new nonprofit holding company. This new company would then be free to make investments without the commission’s oversight. Republicans in the House and Senate led by Causey were against the bill.
Let Blue Cross NC act more like a for-profit insurance business, Causey warned, and health insurance rates would go up. He said that the business would be able to move its assets to the holding company it was going to create without having to give customers money back in the form of lower quotes.
The bill became law in June 2023 when Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper signed it away.