Jessica Altman to Lead Covered California
Altman earned a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University in 2010.
From 2010 through 2013, she worked for the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, the arm of the Department of Health and Human Services that set up the Affordable Care Act public exchange system.
Altman then earned a master’s degree from Harvard. In 2015, after getting the degree, she took a staff job in the Pennsylvania Insurance Department. Two years later, Gov. Tom Wolf appointed her to take over from Teresa Miller as the state’s insurance commissioner.
In addition to serving as Pennsylvania’s insurance commissioner and overseeing Pennie, Altman has been chair of the Health Insurance and Managed Care Committee at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
Wolf, a Democrat, has said that Mike Humphreys, the Pennsylvania department’s chief of staff, will become acting insurance commissioner once Altman leaves.
Senior Health Insurance of Pennsylvania
Still another of Altman’s roles has been as rehabilitator of Senior Health Insurance of Pennsylvania, or SHIP, an insolvent long-term care issuer.
Altman has won court approval for a proposal to rehabilitate the insurer, rather than liquidating it and having state guaranty funds take responsibility for the insureds’ benefits.
Insurance regulators in 30 states are trying to block Altman’s proposal from taking effect. Ray Farmer, the South Carolina insurance director and former president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, has said that if Altman’s SHIP rehabilitation plan were implemented, the results would be a “tragic injustice for our SHIP policyholders.”
Altman has said in a court filing that the 30 regulators have failed to provide support for claims that the rehabilitation plan would cause “chaos and confusion.”
Altman has also argued that 96% of the SHIP policies that are still in force were written in Pennsylvania, California, Florida, Illinois and Texas, and that regulators in those states have not opposed the rehabilitation plan.
Louisiana regulators recently obtained a temporary injunction against implementation of the rehabilitation plan from a state court.
Jim Donelon, Louisiana’s commissioner, said he believes Altman’s rehabilitation plan would keep insureds from getting access to guaranty fund protection.
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Jessica Altman (Photo: Covered California)
