I have just completed a conversation with Georgia Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine. He telephoned me after I sent an e-mail calling upon him to explain his failure to protect consumers from price-gouging health insurance companies.

As a self-employed small business owner, I have watched premiums for my wife and me escalate from $300 a month three years ago, to nearly $900 monthly at the end of 2004, while being forced to dramatically reduce the level of our coverage.

Now that company, which is anonymous behind a corporate blue shield, has informed us that our premium will increase by another 35 percent on Jan. 1. It’s been 20 to 50 percent every year.

Mr. Oxendine, when I called him to task, danced around skyrocketing health insurance costs by claiming his office has no authority to directly regulate premiums. That’s probably true. But his office does have authority to prevent insurance companies from issuing any new, profitable products.

With that authority, our insurance commissioner easily could cause companies to back off huge annual premium increases, simply by letting them understand new products can’t be approved so long as they gouge consumers.

It’s called using leverage, Mr. Oxendine. Sort of like the leverage those same companies expect when they fund perks or contributions for certain politicians. A consumer begins to wonder to whom certain elected politicians give priority: everyday citizens or the insurance companies.

Clearly, our state insurance commissioner is not using the full power of his office to protect Georgians. Perhaps it’s time for the commissioner to use his influence for the good of Georgians, or step aside to allow someone else to protect us from a new breed of robber baron.

I, for one, can’t afford to continue being “protected” by Oxendine’s current policies. But I’m also ready to be his supporter, if and when he gets back the money we’ve all been gouged out of for years. The ball’s in your court, Commissioner.

Craig E. Cook
Gainesville, Ga.

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