Mississippi – George Dale

Hurricane Katrina adversely affected Mississippi in many ways and Insurance Commissioner George Dale has been at center stage throughout the recovery process. Since the catastrophe, Dale has maintained that his top two responsibilities are to “get as many clients paid as we could, and be sure there is a market when our coast begins to rebuild.” After insurers paid $11.8 billion for 440,000 claims, his agency began performing a “market conduct exam” to determine how they have treated their customers, and whether there has been any fraudulent activity.

While Dale approves of the election versus appointment of insurance commissioners, he said the major weakness of the election process is that campaigns have become too expensive.

“It was never the intention of the writers of our Constitution to limit the person eligible to serve in public office based on his wealth or his ability to raise money,” he said. The longest tenured commissioner in the country, Dale has announced that he will run for reelection in 2008.

Dale believes that federal regulation of the insurance industry is not particularly a good idea.

“I just think that the state regulation of insurance, with all of its warts, is closer to the consumer than some type of federal insurance czar would be to our people,” he said.

Topics Mississippi