Flood waters like these that resulted from Hurricane Florence in in Lumberton in 2018 are a growing driver of costs and rate hikes in the insurance industry. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
The race for North Carolina Commissioner of Insurance pits three-term state Senator Natasha Marcus, D-Mecklenburg, against two-term incumbent Mike Causey, the first Republican ever to win the seat.
The commissioner of insurance heads he North Carolina Department of Insurance and serves as a member of the Council of State. The Department of Insurance regulates the insurance industry, handles insurance-related complaints and licenses insurance agents. The commissioner is elected statewide during presidential election years and serves a four-year term.
The commissioner’s seat is an important one, and particularly so amid a critical national discussion about high rents and home prices that are out-of-reach for many citizens. Increases in insurance rates can dramatically drive up housing costs. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, has made expanding the nation’s stock of affordable housing a pillar of her platform.
An aggressive challenger
The race between Causey and Marcus has been a spicy one with Marcus aggressively attacking the incumbent’s record on insurance rate hikes, pinning him with the nickname “Rate Hike Mike” and labeling him an “insurance industry insider” who has forgotten that he was “elected by the people to be their voice.”
“During his eight years in office, he [Causey] has approved an unprecedented number of rate hikes, with two more on the way, and refuses to hold public hearings,” Marcus said on her campaign website. “Instead of a transparent process where insurance companies are required to provide proof under oath, subject to cross examination, to justify higher rates, Causey skips the public hearings and makes private settlements that allow rates to increase again and again.”
Marcus said in an interview with PBS North Carolina that it’s important that the commissioner advocate for North Carolinians.
“I think that that’s what the voters of North Carolina need and should have in their insurance commissioner, not someone entangled with the insurance companies,” Marcus said. “My opponent, the incumbent commissioner of insurance used to be an industry lobbyist and has a lot of connections and in my opinion is too cozy with the insurance companies.”
Causey worked in the insurance industry for more than 25 years as an agent, manager, supervisor and agency owner. Meanwhile, Marcus serves on the Senate Commerce and Insurance, Judiciary, Redistricting & Elections, Budget, and Education committees. She earned a law degree from Duke University and practiced law at the Brooks Pierce law firm.
Marcus said the role of the commissioner is to represent the interest of the people, help keep rates low as possible while maintaining a vibrant marketplace of insurance options.
“We don’t want to drive insurance companies out of our state — we don’t want to become Florida, right — we want them to want to write policies here and in order to do that, they’re entitled to earn a reasonable profit, reasonable … but not whatever they want,” Marcus said. “It’s a regulated market because people are required to have these forms of insurances, homeowners, auto insurance, workers’ comp and it’s supposed to be a fair price.”
A lowkey incumbent
Causey was defeated four times in runs for commissioner in 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2012, but he defeated Democratic incumbent Wayne Goodwin in 2016 and was reelected in 2020. He told PBS NC in July during an interview with Kelly McCullen that the consideration of rate increases is a balancing act.
“Of course, nobody wants any increase, but you don’t want an increase in your groceries, you don’t want an increase at the fuel pump,” Causey said. “But we’ve seen, especially over the last few years, we’ve seen tremendous damage because of inflation.”
Causey said the North Carolina Rate Bureau, which administers property and casualty rates for the state’s insurance industry, is working well. The Rate Bureau, a nonprofit, unincorporated rating bureau created by the General Assembly which is not a part of the Department of Insurance, represents all property and casualty insurance companies writing premiums in North Carolina.
The insurance industry has mixed views about the bureau. Some want it to remain as it is, while some want a deregulated free market system. Others say they would prefer a combination of the two, Causey said.
During his tenure, Causey said, he has worked with the Rate Bureau and the legislature to give insurance companies more freedom and flexibility.
“You can’t argue with the success of North Carolina over the decades that we have been a pretty strong stable insurance market and the Rate Bureau-system has worked well,” Causey said. “I don’t see any appetite in the legislature to do away with the Rate Bureau or make drastic changes.”
Causey has sometimes found himself at odds with the state’s Republican legislative leadership, most recently over a bill passed in 2023 that allowed the state’s venerable health insurance nonprofit, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina to transfer assets to a new nonprofit holding company, that would, in turn, be free to make investments beyond the commission’s oversight. Causey opposed the bill while GOP House and Senate leaders.
Causey warned that allowing Blue Cross NC to act more like a for-profit insurance company would cause health insurance to rise. He argued that the company would be able to shift assets to the holding company it would set up and avoid returning money to policyholders in the form of lower premiums.
Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, signed the bill into law in June 2023.