Awards

Summary:  Over the past 16 years, I have been working to win the legislative fight on a local, state and national level to address our issues and make our industry available for future consumers. I have been the local legislative chair for 4 years, as well as two years as President. I have served as the California State Legislative Vice President and the State President. I have served on the National Legislative Counsel as well as the cost containment task force, and has been the Chair of the CAHU PAC for the four years and on the PAC board for 7 years. Currently I am co-leading two major NABIP Board of Trustee initiatives - Major Health Policy committee as well as the NABIP Reorganization committee.  As a four-year member of the NAHU board and a finance committee and personnel committee member during contract negotiations I have experience at the upper levels of the organization.  Running a State Chapter with 14 chapters, a PAC and Foundation and a Region with 27 chapters has given me a taste of the level of creativity and focus that leadership entails at the NABIP level.  I current am on the NABIP Foundation Board of Directors, the NABIP Legislative Council as well as duties on my State and Local.

Recognition:  I have been awarded the Golden Gate chapter Legislative Excellence Award 4 separate times, as well as the William T Robinson and Lloyd Baum Spirit of Freedom and Legislative Excellence Award from California State Chapter. In 2019 I was awarded the NAHU Spirit of Freedom Legislative Award, of which I am most proud.  In 2019 and 2020 Region 8 was named the Region of Excellence for a Large Region.

Covered California Rollout - I participated in the California Employer Health Legislative Work Group in the lead up to the ACA implementation as Legislative Chair, and as President Elect and President of the California State Chapter. This work with the State Senate Committee on Health was the committee providing insight and commentary to the State legislature on health policy. 

I worked with Covered California to develop the Agent Agreement prior to the ACA rollout, which provided market level commissions to agents in the SHOP and the individual market. This was a huge win for California agents and the ability of our members to continue to operate in the state of California.

During the first two years of the ACA rollout I had weekly teleconferences with Covered California management to address issues of agents as they arose during that disastrous rollout..

I spent a week on the Covered California Tour bus with the leaders of the State Exchange, making sure that agents were heard at each stop during that first renewal enrollment year (fall 2015). I testified to the State Senate Committee on Health about the effectiveness of agents during the initial years of Covered California vs the state-paid enrollees, and the value and effectiveness of agents as the most efficient and best way to reduce the uninsured in the State. I was named to the Covered California stakeholder advisory group in 2014- 17 and also sat on the state insurance curriculum committee and test review working group during that time.

Proposition 45 - During my Presidency, I lead the grassroots effort against California’s Proposition 45 with his CAHU State Chapter President predecessor, Sam Smith, which would have put total control of California’s insurance marketplace in the hands of the state insurance commissioner.  California AHU raised half a million dollars to lead a grass-roots effort against the initiative, including speaking at over 400 local events during the initiative campaign up and down the state, developing polling and collateral materials for our positions - while our insurance company partners waged a television campaign with over $50 million in expenditure.  These efforts lead to a defeat by 10% of the initiative, which had initially had over 70% positive polling numbers.

Legislative Work:  I have testified many times to the California State Senate and Assembly committees on health with regards to issue close to the heart of the Health Underwriters, including the effort to eliminate employer self-funding for small employers, as well as the roll out of the affordable care act in the state and the critical value of agents in making both the governmental and private sector individual health coverage areas succeed. I continue to work with the State Health Committee Consultant on a regular basis as a sounding board for possible state health legislation.

While California often proposed and passes bills that make our lives difficult, it is the work of our association which makes it livable. Changes in bills that allow us to continue to operate sometimes are the best we can do. I am proud to have worked on a number of issues over the past decade that we have worked to a reasonable solution. But we have also been fortunate to stop significant bills like Single Payor which would have put all of us out of business.

PAC I have contributed to HUPAC at the Diamond level for more than 5 years and have been on the CAHU PAC at the same Diamond level over 10 years. I have been on the CAHU PAC board for 8 years and chair for 4.  I have attended numerous events with State Legislators and Political Parties over the past decade throughout the state.

CAHU Foundation:  In 2017 I lead the resuscitation of the CAHU Foundation with the intention of making that a place to education the public on the value of our industry.

Regional Vice President – My work with my Regional Board – of which I am pleased to say many of whom have advanced to advanced positions on NAHU committees and the BOT – has ensured our Region has a thriving leadership team.  Our Region and chapters have won significant numbers of awards over the years through teamwork, hard work and focus.   

During my term as RVP, the Board initiated NABIP vision 2025 and I have been involved on a number of committees including co-leading the Major Health Policy task review as well as Goal 7-  NABIP reorganization..  This is a significant undertaking to revitalize our entire association and make it work better for our volunteer leaders and our members.  My focus has been on making our NABIP voice heard more broadly by bring our expertise to bear, to ensure our members as well as non-member value the investment the association makes - both at the National and the State level – and to provide our members a product that they can use in their daily business practices.