10b
Wednesday, October 31 1990 / University Daily Kansan
Insurance Commissioner
Paul Feleciano (D)
Age:48
Hometown: New York City, now living in Wichita.
Background: Served as State Rep., 1972 - 1976, and as State Senator, 1976 - present.
Paul Feleciano
Education: An allied arts and sciences degree in petroleum engineering from New York Community College.
Kansas in insurance crisis
Feleciano says time to alter status quo
By David Roach
Kansan staff writer
Kansas is in an insurance crisis, and the state's insurance commission needs new leadership to solve it, said State Sen. Paul Feleciano, Democrat of Kansas.
"I'm running for the office of insurance commissioner because I view it as an opportunity to do some innovative things with that office that would never be done by my opponent," Feliciano said.
"We must make changes in that office if we're truly going to get a handle on making affordable insurance available in Kansas," he said.
e琵iano said that he thought at one time that the main insurance concern for Kansans was in health care but that as he campaigned across the state and talked to people, he realized it was much broader.
"The crisis out there is not just in affordable health insurance but in a wide range of insurance needs such as auto insurance, workman's compensation and specialized liability," he said.
Foeleiano said insurance companies were having difficulty offering new insurance products to Kansans because of the policies of the current insurance commissioner, Fletcher Bell, and Bell's assistant, Ron Todd.
Todd is Feleciano's opponent. He has been the assistant commissioner of insurance under Bell for 20 years.
"One of the favored treatment companies in the state is Blue Cross-Blue Shield," he said. "It's almost an insectous relationship."
business in Kansas.
Feleciano said that Blue Cross' hegemony in the field of health care was keeping other companies out of Kansas.
He said Blue Cross administered Medicare programs in Kansas, which gave them an important health insurance to senior citizens.
Feleciano said of Todd, "He refuses to provide a level playing field to health-care carriers who sell supplemental policies to the federal plan, and he refuses to grant them equal access to the senior citizens."
Feleciano said he would push for legislation requiring insurance companies to use community rating, which would lump small groups together into larger groups in order to spread risk among the larger groups and make insurance available at lower prices.
"It goes away from tier rating, where if you're healthy we give you good rates and if you are not, we're going to sock it to you," he said. "The way it is now, Ron Todd and Fletcher Bell have basically allowed the industry to do away with the concept of risk."
Feleciano said he would push for legislation that would prevent the commissioner from accepting contracts or people in the insurance industry.
He also said he would increase the
“
The crisis out there is not just in affordable health insurance but in a wide range of insurance needs such as auto insurance, workmen's compensation and specialized liability.
Paul Feleciano
Candidate for insurance
commissioner
use of computers in the office of the commission.
"They don't want to make any changes," Feleciano said. "They want to maintain the status quo, business-as-usual mentality, all to the detriment to the citizens of this state."
Feleciano said he would use his 18 years in the Legislature to take the office of insurance commissioner into the 21st century.
"To stay in the Senate and allow Ron Todd to perpetuate the hoax that his perpetuation on the citizens of Arizona be a horrible mistake," he said.
"Kansas is viewed by the insurance industry as one of the most regressive states in the nation in bringing new products approved, he said.
Industry format complex
success, Todd says
By David Roach
Kansan staff writer
The insurance commission is responsible for administering the complex laws that regulate a complex industry. Republican candidate
Rob Food said
It regulates more than 1,500 companies and more than 30,000 insurance agents, he said.
About 60,000 policy forms and about 3,500 rate filings are reviewed by the commission each year, and it conducts financial surveillance on every insurance company doing business in Kansas, Todd said.
The commission also handles about 8,000 consumer complaints against insurance companies each year, he said.
And Todd said he was the man with the experience to handle the job of insurance commissioner.
Todd said that he had worked for the insurance commission since he graduated from college in 1965 and was appointed insurance commissioner for 20 years.
we feel we've done a real good job of enforcing the insurance laws," he said. "It's our feeling that most of us deal with us in think the same thing."
Todd said that the commission could not act as a court of law but that it could determine if a company is responsible stance concerning a claim.
"Over the last 10 years, we have been able to return over $5 million a year to people who have had dispatched care and have come to us for the sick," he said.
Todd said that $ ^{c} $ Kansas insurance laws compared favorably to other states but that they could be improved.
"It's not really a matter of bad laws," he said. "It's just that things change all the time. We're constantly trying to ascertain whether there's something that needs to be changed."
Told said the rising cost of health care was one of the main concerns among insurance companies, the Legislature and consumers.
"There's not a whole lot the commissioner of insurance by himself can do on that, because the reason health-insurance costs are going up is because health-care costs are going up," he said.
Todd said that the commission did
Ron Todd
Ron Todd (R)
Age: 58
hometown: Lawrence Education: A degree in Business from KU. Background: Has worked for the Insurance Commission since 1956. Became assistant commissioner in 1970.
have considerable influence on the Legislature and that there were things legislation could do to mitigate the high cost of health insurance.
He said that companies recently started underwriting groups of 25 people or fewer but that they were excluding certain people from coverage if they had pre-existing conditions such as a bad heart or diabetes.
"I would like to see laws enacted that you either had to take the small group in its entirety or not at all," he said.
However, that might cause insurance companies to charge higher rates, he said.
"That's the down side of it," he said. "We need to get away from what I call the individual group and transfer to the community group basis."
which would spread risk among the larger group and reduce premiums. Todd said.
Todd said he also would like to see the Legislature implement an assigned-risk pool for people who are ineligible for insurance because of poor health.
the community-group basis would lump small groups together and then base rates on the conglomerate.
He said there were as many as 450,000 Kansans without health insurance.
"They have nowhere to go right now, even if they could pay for it," he said. "We feel that an assigned-risk plan would spread the cost around among the others and would be a preferable way of doing it."
He said the cost of the pool would have to be subsidized by the state, and he proposed financing that subsidy by giving the insurance companies a credit on taxes they paid on insurance premium revenues.
"That would not be a direct payment out of the state revenue fund," he said.
Finnev
Continued from p. 1b
more self-supporting by working with private industry.
not see many a student who simply play around in high school and then get into college and do very well," she said. "You also see college freshmen who completely bomb out and then return as adults and become some of the most competitive students in the classroom.
Finney said she did not support qualified admissions.
"People change. Give everybody a chance."
back into shape, the state must develop more frugal policies in everyday operations.
"The governor has proposed a commission to study waste, and the cost of that commission is a half-million dollars," she said. "This is frivolous. I know of many areas where we can cut back on expenditures by simply using common sense."
She said that she would rely on state employees for cost-cutting ideas and that they had already given her several.
Finney said that to get the budget
She blamed her Republican opponent, Gov. Mike Hayden, for the state's budget欠岳.
"They've hired 3,000 employees in the past four years and then had to buy a building and build a building to put them in," she said. "The people cannot tolerate this waste any longer."
Finney also has laid the problems of what she called the Carlin-Hayden reappraisal plan on Hayden's door-steer.
Havden
"He helped create this mess," she said. "And he's had four years to
correct it."
No new taxes would be created during her first year in office, she said.
Finney said that she would strive to reduce Kansas' dependence on property tax and that she would redistribute taxes more equitably.
"After that, everything's on the table," she said.
Finney has proposed adding a 1 percent sales tax on some or all of the goods and services that are taxed in order to obtain money to finance property tax relief.
Continued from p. 1b
Hayden said he would support a parental notification bill with a judicial bypass for women under the age of 16.
"Abortion is a personal and private decision, which women should have the right to make for themselves without interference from the government or from politicians." Hayden said.
Most judicial bypass proposals pertain to women under 18 who do not have legal guardians or have been victims of incest.
He said he supported the University of Kansas Medical Center's decision to perform abortions after the 22nd week of pregnancy only in cases where a mother's life would be danger.
"It requires very extraordinary circumstances." he said.
The environment also is a crucial concern. Havden said.
Dry farming, or looking to technology for alternative means to farming while the nation's water supply is getting smaller, is one way to improve the environment, Hayden said.
VISIONS
an optical dispensary
BOLLE OZONE GUARD
FORUM
806 massachusetts. (913) 841-7421
lawrence. kansas
High School Bond Issue
November 1, 1990 at 7:30 p.m.
Proponents: Representatives from U.S.D. #497
Opponents: Citizens for Education
Moderator: Dean Jerry Bailey
Dyche Hall; Room 308
Free and open to the public, for more information call 864-3726. Sponsored by School of Education Student Organization.
Advertise in The Daily Kansan for Quick Results
Think
Before You Vote for Governor... Your Personal Rights Are at Risk!
Joan Finney is Anti-Choice.
She will sign legislation allowing state interference in your reproductive freedom.
She is endorsed by radical anti-choice groups.
Mike Hayden is Pro-Choice.
He understands abortion is a religious and moral question and cannot be legislated.
He trusts women to make personal decisions for themselves
Vote for Mike Hayden,
the ONLY Pro-Choice Candidate for Governor
扬 for by ProChallenge Action League, C. Moser, Treasurer PA, Box 3622 * Wichita, KS 67201* (316) 681-2121
ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER
FOLLY THEATER
Thursday, Nov. 1       8:00 pm
Friday, Nov. 2        7:30 pm
Saturday, Nov. 3       2:00 pm
Saturday, Nov. 4       8:00 pm
TICKETS FROM $10 Student Discounts Available
MIDLAND THEATER
Friday, Nov. 9
Saturday, Nov. 10
Saturday, Nov. 10
8:00 pm
2:00 pm
2:00 pm
ROOMS AT TICKET MASTER
Braithwaite High-Powered
Spell Binding!
America's Forever Dance Company.
Coming Home This Fall!
Order Your Ticket Today!
TICKETS AVAILABLE ATALL TICKETMASTER TICKET CENTERS
INCLUDING ALL JONES STORES, GART BROTHERS SPORTING GOODS
STORES AND SELECT SEVENTH HEAVEN STORES. TO CHARGE TICKETS BY PHONE
CALL 931-3330.
Folly Theater 474-4444 * Midland Theater 421-7500
PRESENTED BY THE KANSAS CITY FRIENDS OF ALVIN AILEY
A MEDICAL ART ALLIANCE PROGRAM
THE MEDICAL ART ALLIANCE PROGRAM is a collaborative effort of the MediArte Arthritis Alliance made possible by the National Institute for the Prevention of Musculoskeletal Disorders, and the Muscular Arthritis Council.