Nick Gerhart, the Iowa insurance commissioner, will be leaving that post Dec. 23, according to the Iowa Insurance Division.
Doug Ommen, deputy commissioner, will be the interim commissioner, officials say.
Gerhart is resigning because his family is expecting a fourth child, and he has not committed to any other future job, a representative said.
Gerhart has a bachelor's degree from the University of Northern Iowa and a law degree from St. Louis University. He worked in compliance for insurance companies before becoming the Iowa commissioner.
While serving as the Iowa commissioner, Gerhart expressed concerns about potentially misleading annuity advertising and oversaw the state's efforts to adapt to the Affordable Care Act. Iowa did not set up a state-based ACA public health insurance exchange, but it did take ACA Medicaid expansion money.
Iowa also helped managers of HealthCare.gov, the federal ACA exchange enrollment and exchange account administration system, promote the program.
Gerhart faced an early sign of problems in major ACA coverage expansion programs when CoOportunity, a nonprofit, member-owned carrier started with ACA Consumer Operated and Oriented Program startup loans, failed suddenly in late 2014. CoOportunity was the first CO-OP to fail. Since then, many others have shut their doors.
Related:
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader
Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
Allison Bell
Allison Bell, a senior reporter at ThinkAdvisor and BenefitsPRO, previously was an associate editor at National Underwriter Life & Health. She has a bachelor's degree in economics from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She can be reached through X at @Think_Allison.
