If he’s not at his desk on the sixth floor of the state Insurance Department, Thomas R. Sullivan might be found one floor up, poring over files of complaints in the consumer affairs division. He might even answer the phone –- to get a feeling for what consumers are really unhappy about when it comes to their insurance.
“The only way I can be grounded and understand what the issues are is to roll up my sleeves and see what the issues are up there,” said Sullivan, 45, who was recently confirmed as the new commissioner of the state Department of Insurance.
Getting to know the gripes of consumers, he said, will allow the department to translate those concerns into a healthier, more competitive market.
“If we can do that, we’re fulfilling the core part of our mission,” he said.
A Southington resident, Sullivan spent 22 years climbing the ladder at The Hartford Financial Services Group, eventually becoming a senior vice president for Specialty Risk Services, a subsidiary.
But the job had him flying around the country more than the father of three cared for. When the public sector called, he answered.
Fast Learner
Having professional experience in the property/casualty realm, he’s had to get himself up to speed on the health care bills put forth by Gov. M. Jodi Rell and other policymakers, and answer technical questions from the legislature.
Though his role will mainly be in implementing whatever changes are put into law, for now he touts the proposals of Gov. Rell’s plan, harps on the need for increased enrollment in HUSKY, the state’s health insurance plan for children, and supports raising reimbursement rates for Medicaid and Medicare services.
“Those kinds of things strike me as enhancing a stable private market and addressing the uninsured, under-insured need, which is really what we need to do,” he said.
As the insurance department, “we want to encourage an open, competitive marketplace. That I believe to be in the best interest of consumers.”
He warns about the dangers of a single payer system.
“I don’t know how that would integrate with the private market. I don’t see that happening,” he said.
In the property/casualty realm, the ballooning costs of home insurance in coastal areas is on the top of the agenda. Predictions about the number of violent storms in coming years are likely to make things worse.
Rising Rates
“When you take the climate data and overlay it with the fact that some of our smaller carriers who compete in our market have not pushed the kind of rate increases that the reinsurers and the rating agencies would like to have seen, it puts pressure on the market from a rates perspective,” Sullivan explained.
The good news, he says, is that with the exception of Allstate, which pulled out of insuring homes in many coastal areas, he doesn’t see others following.
About three weeks into his new job, he also is immersing himself in ongoing areas of disagreement with Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.
One of the early meetings Sullivan granted was with the Auto Body Association of Connecticut, a group of more than 100 auto body repair shops that has been charging for years that the Insurance Department has looked the other way while auto insurers illegally steer business to shops with which they have business arrangements.
Blumenthal is on the side of the repair shops, speaking at the group’s last four annual meetings and openly criticizing Sullivan’s new roost.
Sullivan had leaders of the group into his office and offered them a tall stack of laminated signs to post in their shops, indicating that consumers have the right to have their cars repaired where they choose.
Though he agrees with his predecessor, Susan Cogswell, that there is nothing illegal about direct repair deals, as they are called, he would also like consumers to be aware of their rights.
