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One of Obama's Henchmen:
Jay Angoff
After graduating from Oberlin College in 1973 and Vanderbilt Law School in 1978, Mr. Angoff began his career as an antitrust lawyer at the Federal Trade Commission and then worked as a lobbyist at Congress Watch, a Ralph Nader organization.
Michael Pertschuk, a former chairman of the trade commission, wrote admiringly of Mr. Angoff in "Giant Killers," his 1986 book about public interest lobbyists. He described Mr. Angoff as "tough, prickly, righteous, slow to compromise."
Mr. Angoff worked for a nonprofit group, the National Insurance Consumer Organization, before moving to New Jersey, where he was a deputy insurance commissioner and health policy adviser to Gov. Jim Florio, a Democrat.
As director of the Missouri Insurance Department from 1993 to 1998, Mr. Angoff got to know Kathleen Sebelius, who was the insurance commissioner and then the governor of Kansas.
Ms. Sebelius, now the secretary of health and human services, recruited him to be director of a new Office of Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight.
Mr. Angoff said effective regulation of insurers "could have a greater impact on costs and coverage" than the public insurance option liberals championed unsuccessfully.
And Mr. Angoff has made it clear that he means to be aggressive in setting "marketplace rules." He will enforce a section of the law that requires insurers to file detailed justifications for any "unreasonable increases in premiums." One of his first tasks is to define "unreasonable."
A former law partner, Cyrus Mehri, said: "Having been a state insurance commissioner, Jay can see through the games insurance companies play. He will put teeth into the law. He will create a whole new federal regulatory regime to rein in the abuses and excesses of the industry."
As a Missouri official, Mr. Angoff won a legal battle with the state's Blue Cross and Blue Shield plan, which agreed to help set up an independent charitable foundation after it switched from nonprofit to for-profit status.
As a lawyer in private practice, he secured tens of millions of dollars for consumers in class-action lawsuits against insurers.
Calvin W. Call, executive director of the Missouri Insurance Coalition, a trade association, said Mr. Angoff's appointment did not bode well for health insurers.
"The industry's survival is probably limited in time, and Jay will be right there to watch it perish," Mr. Call said. "Here in Missouri, Jay seemed to be a proponent of confrontation and almost invited litigation to decide issues that could have been resolved in the General Assembly or through compromise."
On the other hand, Mr. Call said: "Jay kept us challenged every day. He may have made the industry better, more attuned to detail."
Jay Angoff
After graduating from Oberlin College in 1973 and Vanderbilt Law School in 1978, Mr. Angoff began his career as an antitrust lawyer at the Federal Trade Commission and then worked as a lobbyist at Congress Watch, a Ralph Nader organization.
Michael Pertschuk, a former chairman of the trade commission, wrote admiringly of Mr. Angoff in "Giant Killers," his 1986 book about public interest lobbyists. He described Mr. Angoff as "tough, prickly, righteous, slow to compromise."
Mr. Angoff worked for a nonprofit group, the National Insurance Consumer Organization, before moving to New Jersey, where he was a deputy insurance commissioner and health policy adviser to Gov. Jim Florio, a Democrat.
As director of the Missouri Insurance Department from 1993 to 1998, Mr. Angoff got to know Kathleen Sebelius, who was the insurance commissioner and then the governor of Kansas.
Ms. Sebelius, now the secretary of health and human services, recruited him to be director of a new Office of Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight.
Mr. Angoff said effective regulation of insurers "could have a greater impact on costs and coverage" than the public insurance option liberals championed unsuccessfully.
And Mr. Angoff has made it clear that he means to be aggressive in setting "marketplace rules." He will enforce a section of the law that requires insurers to file detailed justifications for any "unreasonable increases in premiums." One of his first tasks is to define "unreasonable."
A former law partner, Cyrus Mehri, said: "Having been a state insurance commissioner, Jay can see through the games insurance companies play. He will put teeth into the law. He will create a whole new federal regulatory regime to rein in the abuses and excesses of the industry."
As a Missouri official, Mr. Angoff won a legal battle with the state's Blue Cross and Blue Shield plan, which agreed to help set up an independent charitable foundation after it switched from nonprofit to for-profit status.
As a lawyer in private practice, he secured tens of millions of dollars for consumers in class-action lawsuits against insurers.
Calvin W. Call, executive director of the Missouri Insurance Coalition, a trade association, said Mr. Angoff's appointment did not bode well for health insurers.
"The industry's survival is probably limited in time, and Jay will be right there to watch it perish," Mr. Call said. "Here in Missouri, Jay seemed to be a proponent of confrontation and almost invited litigation to decide issues that could have been resolved in the General Assembly or through compromise."
On the other hand, Mr. Call said: "Jay kept us challenged every day. He may have made the industry better, more attuned to detail."
