Donegan to Remain as Vermont Insurance Commissioner After Shumlin Wins Re-election in Legislature
January 13, 2015 by Thomas Harman, associate editor, BestWeek: Tom.Harman@ambest.com
MONTPELIER, Vt. – Vermont Insurance Commissioner Susan Donegan will retain her post after state lawmakers settled a razor-thin governor’s race by re-electing Gov. Peter Shumlin.
Donegan told Best’s News Service she will be reappointed as commissioner at the Department of Financial Regulation for another two-year term that begins Feb. 28.
While Shumlin, a Democrat, finished ahead of Republican nominee Scott Milne by 2,434 votes, several other candidates received enough votes to prevent Shumlin from achieving a majority of the ballots. That sent the election into the Legislature, where Shumlin had a much easier time, winning 110-69. Shumlin won among lawmakers despite resistance to his December announcement that he must kill his plans for a universal single-payer health care system, citing the overwhelming costs of establishing it.
Donegan came to Vermont as a deputy commissioner in 2011. She was appointed by Shumlin as commissioner in January 2013, following the resignation of Commissioner Steve Kimbrell.
She helped develop the state-run health insurance exchange, Vermont Health Connect. She is also the commissioner of the state that in 2013 had the most domestic captive insurers and captive insurance premiums written at 495 and $25.56 billion respectively, according to the NAIC’s 2013 Insurance Department Resources Report (Best’s News Service, Sept. 10, 2014).
Donegan has been in visible positions at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. She represents the group at the International Association of Insurance Supervisors as vice chairwoman of the governance working group.
Also, she was the chairwoman of the NAIC’s corporate governance working group that worked for three years on a corporate governance model law for state lawmaker consideration. The law provides states with updated corporate governance filing rules and regulations for the Corporate Governance Annual Disclosure Model Act and the Corporate Governance Annual Disclosure Model Regulation (Best’s News Service, Aug. 18, 2014). The final product addressed a Federal Insurance Office call for short-term action by states as part of its 2013 insurance industry modernization report. The working group disbanded at the NAIC’s Fall National meeting last November.