Mike Kreidler is Washington’s eighth insurance commissioner. A former member of Congress, he was first elected as insurance commissioner in 2000. He was re-elected to a third term in 2008.

A doctor of optometry with a master's degree in public health, Kreidler practiced at Group Health Cooperative in Olympia for 20 years. He served as a member of the Northwest Power Planning Council and a regional director for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

He retired as a lieutenant colonel from the Army Reserves with 20 years of service.

He has earned a reputation both as a staunch advocate for consumer protection and as a fair and balanced regulator. He was honored in 2009 with the "Excellence in Consumer Advocacy Award," presented by consumer advisors to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

Among his accomplishments:

Cutting excessive insurance rate increases by more than $300 million since 2000.
Helping individual consumers recover about $10 million a year in denied and delayed insurance payments.
Restoring troubled insurers to financial solvency.
Rejecting a bid by one of the state's largest non-profit health insurers, Premera Blue Cross, to become a for-profit company.
Regaining national accreditation for the office.
Successfully fighting attempts by big out-of-state insurance companies to strip consumers of their legal protections.
And working with state lawmakers to close a waiting-period loophole that was endangering the lives of organ-transplant patients.

Throughout his career, Kreidler has been passionate about achieving health care coverage for all Washingtonians. Early on, he proposed a state plan for health-care reform, called the Guaranteed Health Benefit Plan. He was a strong proponent of the federal Affordable Care Act, enacted in March 2010.

From the boardroom of his local school district to the state Legislature and halls of Congress, Kreidler has represented the state’s citizenry for more than 30 years.

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Updated 01/17/2012

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