Ralph Hudgens has allowed car insurance, homeowner’s insurance and health insurance to skyrocket in the nearly 8 years since he took office. He’s done nothing to protect ratepayers or push back against the companies that swindle them.
We couldn’t be more thankful that he’s leaving. His entire tenure has been characterized by ratepayers being taken advantage of by insurance companies.
Here are just a few terrible things he’s done, to jog your memory:
- He compared pre-existing conditions to a car accident that is the driver’s fault.
- Hudgens thought that insurance companies that make billions in profits every year should be allowed to refuse coverage to people.
- He thought it was more important for him to protect his allies in the insurance industry than to stand up for Georgia families.
- He campaigned to prevent Georgians from benefitting from the Affordable Care Act.
- Just two months ago he approved premium increases of more than 50 percent for the four companies still participating in Georgia’s health care exchange next year.
Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens wanted Obamacare to fail and has spent his tenure making insurance unaffordable.
Under Hudgens, Georgia has suffered some of the highest auto insurance rate increases in the nation–more than twice the national average. The state has ranked first or second for highest annual rate increases in the country, for the past four years.
When asked about this, Hudgens claimed that it was out of his control, because of a law that allows insurance companies to increase rates without government approval. But in 2008, as part of the state Senate, Hudgens supported this bill.
The only good thing about Hudgens? The fact that he’s not coming back.
There are several candidates lining up to replace Hudgens in 2018: Democrats Cindy Zeldin and Tomeka Kimbrough and Republicans Shane Mobley, Jay Florence and Jim Beck.
If we elect another conservative, Georgians will continue to pay more for insurance. Another conservative tax commissioner would mean more favoring corporations over the people the insurance commissioner is elected to represent.
If we want an insurance commissioner who will fight back against skyrocketing insurance costs and put pressure on Congress to get rid of laws that allow companies to swindle their customers, we must elect a progressive.
Perhaps you could organize a group of Better Georgia volunteers to help Mr. Hudgins pack? The sooner we get him out of his office, the sooner someone else has an opportunity to do the job he never attempted to do. He was a sorry excuse for an Insurance Commissioner.