Other Views: Ex-insurance department spokesman dies after losing insurance

Editor’s Note:

Randy McConnell was a regular contributor to the Columbia Business Times and the Jefferson City Business Times, now the Jefferson City magazine. The front pages of the CBT in the past few years were regularly highlighted Randy’s in-depth analyses of topics such as MU’s dwindling political support, the lack of transportation funding, the ethanol industry and, a topic poignant in retrospect, health insurance reform.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Sept. 4

Randy McConnell died last week. He may have been the most effective consumer advocate you never heard of.

For more than a decade, he was the spokesman for the Missouri Department of Insurance in Jefferson City.

In the end, he lost his state job and the health insurance that came with it.

He lost his next job, too, and never got another that offered insurance.

He was a diabetic and needed insulin to survive. Friends blame his death on his lack of insurance to help pay his medical bills.

His death was a loss to any consumer who’s ever had to deal with an insurance company.

Randy could explain hard-to-understand insurance jargon and regulation in simple terms. Few public officials have that talent, and fewer still are looking out for consumers.

When insurance companies and their legislative allies sought to limit how much individuals could win in malpractice suits, Randy issued a state report showing that malpractice claims were at an all-time low-and explaining that physicians were still paying exorbitant rates.

He issued another report pointing out that insurance companies were charging higher rates to minorities and low-income consumers.

Marsha Mills, a friend and former colleague at the Insurance Department, described Randy’s “willingness to speak out for those who were unable to articulate the injustices they suffered at the hands of their own insurers.”

Randy knew how to get the facts; he had worked as a reporter for the Columbia Daily Tribune, as a columnist for the St. Louis Labor Tribune and as chief correspondent for the short-lived weekly Missouri Times.

“For those who value truth-tellers, Randy was a treasure,” wrote Mike Wolff, a judge on the Missouri Supreme Court.

But telling the truth can get you in trouble.

Randy lost his job with the Insurance Department in 2005 when Republicans replaced Democrats in the Legislature and the Governor’s Mansion.

The Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys, a lobbying group for lawyers that often advocates for consumers, eagerly hired him.

Randy started a campaign to explain how malpractice and tort “reform” were, as he wrote, just another round of “‘blaming the victims’ rather than the real culprits-poorly managed insurance companies that are gouging doctors and other health-care providers.”

Then, a few months after hiring him, the trial attorneys suddenly showed Randy the door.

“The trouble with Randy was that he was too effective,” said Ken Vuylsteke, a longtime member of the trial attorney association’s board of governors.

“And that brought the anger of the powers-that-be that controlled the House and the Senate and the governor’s chair,” Vuylsteke said.

Randy told this writer that he was fired after association members met with Neal English. He was then chief of staff to Sen. Mike Gibbons, R-Kirkwood, Senate president pro tem, one of the most powerful officials in the state.

English and Gibbons both say they had nothing to do with the firing. English said the lawyers sought the meeting to ask how they could have better relations with the new Republican majority.

English said the lawyers asked: “What do we need to do? Do we need to release some folks? Do we need to hire some folks?”

English said he told the group to stop being “essentially an ATM machine for the Democratic Party.”

Gibbons, now a candidate for state attorney general, said he had never suggested firing anyone.

“I guarantee you there was no direction or instruction from me to do that,” Gibbons said.

Sara Schuett, executive director for the trial attorneys association, said she couldn’t discuss the termination. She called McConnell “a wonderful advocate for consumers.”

Vuylsteke, one of the association’s longtime leaders, said he was “ashamed” over “the taking down of a good man like that.”

Scott Lakin, the former Democratic state insurance commissioner who was Randy’s boss, said the Republican leadership was stung by the hard-hitting public statements McConnell crafted for the trial attorneys.

“They wanted him out of there,” Lakin said.

The trial attorneys gave Randy a generous cash settlement. But it was the lack of insurance he worried about. Because of his disease, he couldn’t qualify-or afford-an individual health insurance policy.

Friends helped Randy get job interviews but he never got hired. He worked recently as a part-time Democratic consultant and freelance writer.

Randy lived alone in Jefferson City. To save money, friends said, he began cutting his medication in half. Recently, they now believe, he apparently stopped taking it altogether.

Randy’s friends tried to look after him. One found a clinic where he could get free medication. Randy refused, not wanting to be thought of as a “welfare” recipient.

His relatives live in the Springfield, Mo. area. When they didn’t hear from Randy, they asked one of his neighbors to check on him.

On Aug. 25, the neighbor found Randy’s body in his home. He was 56. An autopsy is pending.

Friends searched but found no insulin in his house.