Insurance Commissioner’s Debate — WDEL

Filed in Delaware by on August 30, 2012

WDEL is hosting a debate between the Democratic candidates for Insurance Commissioner TODAY that you can tune into at 5:30. The debate lasts for an hour and you can listen online at WDEL.com or on the radio at 1150AM.

If you are planning on listening, feel free to use the comment section to talk about what you hear and your reaction to it.

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"You don't make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas." -Shirley Chisholm

Comments (30)

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  1. anon says:

    I just want WDEL to ask KWS one question: How much has the IC’s office spent on outside contractors (like Kelly Services) since the day you took office?

  2. george says:

    She won’t answer that question, or she’ll give some b.s. amount.

  3. cassandra_m says:

    KWS starting out full of it:

    1. Would be nice to see some detail of this $6m recovery for Delawareans
    2. The final child coverage as a result of the Highpoint/BCBS merger was because Denn and Biden pushed for it.
    3. Great to have authority to regulate insurance rates, but if you turn around and ask for waivers for these companies to postpone their obligation to the new medical loss ratios.

    Sheesh.

  4. cassandra_m says:

    $18000 spent advertising for the Captive pay-for-play group.

  5. cassandra_m says:

    Gallagher thinks that the ICs office makes enough money to help fund Wilmington Police and Fire Department. Yikes.

  6. george says:

    So far no one mentioned that all the captives contracts went to crony campaign contributors, so the $18,000 for advertising the three jobs was a sham and a total waste of money.

    Obviously the questions were pre-submitted because for once she sounds coherent, meaning someone scripted the answers for her. I wish someone would get her off script. I think she’s going to turn off voters with that arrogant shrill tone of voice. She sounds like the bitch she is.

  7. cassandra_m says:

    KWS knew 20 years ago that BCBS needed some computer help. {Boggle} And why she cares that BCBS or Aetna loses money is beyond me.

  8. george says:

    Gallagher is earning whatever McDowell may be paying him, propping up KWS as best he can.

  9. cassandra_m says:

    Spivak says that the ACA was overturned. He would, however, integrate parts of it to Delaware.

    Seriously.

  10. cassandra_m says:

    Did I hear Gallagher say that he wants to let people buy insurance from any state?

  11. cassandra_m says:

    Spivak seems to think his job is to write insurance in Wilmington.

  12. heragain says:

    Anyone else getting the impression no one knows what the job of the IC is, here? Can we get matt Denn cloned, already?

  13. cassandra_m says:

    @george — Gallagher talking about letting people buy their insurance anywhere was strange. Especially since this is a conservative Republican idea, and if he is an insurance broker worth his salt, he would know what all of the consumer drawbacks are. AND by noting that it is no big deal for consumers since we go online to buy insurance anyway bypasses one key point — that you can only buy online insurance that is authorized to write insurance in your state. If I was really paranoid, I might think that Gallagher was an ALEC trojan horse.

  14. george says:

    @cassandra — Gallagher is a trojan horse alright. The question is just whose, but we have a pretty good idea.

    Too bad no one pointed out that after supposedly spending $18K for advertising for qualified candidates, if in fact she did, Stewart gave all three captives office jobs to the absentee crony campaign contributors she was going to give them to anyway. All but the most uninformed citizens know that the recipients of such plum political appointments almost ALWAYS pay kickbacks to their benefactor, in this case KWS. That and kickbacks from most other vendors to the department is how she got to be Ms. Moneybags after entering office nearly bankrupt. Stay tuned, and please save the usual admonishments.

  15. SussexWatcher says:

    Didn’t take “George” long …

    You realize you come off like a fucking slandering loon when you spout stuff like that, right?

  16. george says:

    No more than you people do when the subject is a Republican. Then no holds are barred. You and people like you would have had KWS removed from office by now if she didn’t have a “D” after her name.

  17. cassandra_m says:

    Kickbacks to public office holders or operatives or anyone else are NOT the usual thing, george. The pay for play by the Captive players evident from KWS’ last campaign is exactly whey we are all over her case. It *isn’t* usual, and we don’t want it to be usual — especially for people calling themselves Democrats.

    But major campaign contributors who end up with sweetheart consulting gigs is fair game. And $18K to recruit for these three positions is a travesty. Either you put these contracts out for bid (which she said) or you are recruiting. These are two separate procurement activities. And since those RFPs were held pretty tightly, who can tell what the bids were for or even if they were reasonable RFPs. I mean how hard could it be to get people with the right capabilities a little closer to home? Or — even better — if you are paying that kind of money AND they are commuting in from IL or wherever, those contracts should have some performance clauses. As in the program has to break even within a specified period or there’s liquidated damages or similar.

  18. george says:

    “Kickbacks to public office holders or operatives or anyone else are NOT the usual thing, george. The pay for play by the Captive players evident from KWS’ last campaign is exactly whey we are all over her case”.

    And yet she remains in office and has the audacity to run for reelection. It makes you wonder how much the cronies actually contributed to rate mostly no-show consultant jobs at $170-190,000 each per year after supposedly contributing the legally permissible and officially reported maximum of a paltry $1,200 per person to Stewart’s 2008 campaign. Plenty of room for pay-for-play with that kind of income plus expenses.

  19. cassandra_m says:

    The problem has more to do with the fairly lax rules and law in Delaware — beginning with pay to play rules, procurement regs, transparency in procurement. And there is no one who provides oversight to that office except for us. Which is why we have to show up to vote on 9/11. There is little in DE law that constrains whoever is in that office and certainly the Administration won’t do much. They did go as far as assigning the implementation of the ACA exchanges and so on to the DHSS rather than the IC, which is a relief. But in two weeks we have the chance to finally change all of this, because no one else will.

  20. george says:

    Stewart knew all that from her boyfriend David Levinson, the IC who gave her a no-show job in the DOI in 1989 until DonnaLee Williams fired her immediately upon taking office in January 1993. And it’s precisely why she’s chased that office with single minded determination ever since then. For someone with an IQ as low as hers and no education or professional work experience, her road to riches is an amazing although no less criminal achievement.

  21. cassandra m says:

    Well now you’ve crossed into What You Can’t Prove Territory. And after all of this time one would think you could actually come up with some data on this. Because, after all, here you are on the one place that would post up everything you could support.

    There is more than enough in the record we can see to support voting her out of office. Suggest we concentrate on that.

  22. george says:

    The proof is in the hands of people who can do something about it. Posting it here would be useless and would only give the guilty parties a heads up.

  23. SussexWatcher says:

    “George” and “his” associates have been spreading the same kinds of assertions since 2008 without ever offering proof. When asked, “he” says evidence has been turned over to the authorities. When cornered, “he” lashes out, accusing KWS opponents of being in thr tank for her simply because we do not swallow “his” allegations without evidence. Which means “he” is full of shit, and hurting “his” own cause to boot.

  24. cassandra m says:

    It is too bad, because real proof could be published here or in the NJ which would embarass said authorities.

    But there is plenty of real KWS incompetence to address and that is what we’re focused on.

  25. saveourcity says:

    @cassandra_M “Gallagher thinks that the ICs office makes enough money to help fund Wilmington Police and Fire Department. Yikes.”

    Mr. Gallagher is correct on the funding the IC funds the Wilmington
    Police and Wilmington Firefighters Pension funds and had for along time. The information is available in the state budget

  26. george says:

    @sussexwatcher: To paraphrase the bard, you obviously have something to gain by continuing to protest so much under various sock puppet names.

  27. SussexWatcher says:

    The folks here can attest to the fact that I post under no other names.

    It’s typical of you, though, George, to assume that anyone not drinking your kool-aid must be on the take. And that – in addition to your lack of proof – is why not a single news outlet or investigative authority has listened to you for the last four years.

  28. cassandra m says:

    george, you need to focus on delivering your proof. SW isn’t a sockpuppet, otherwise he would have been gone from here ages ago.

  29. george says:

    SW – I don’t know who the hell you’re confusing me with. You might take your own advice and get your story straight before spouting off.

  30. Charlotte says:

    Gallagher is the only one who knows how to get thing done.
    The rest are just lightweight politicians.