John Morrison (Montana politician)

John Morrison
John Morrison providing testimony to the United States Senate in 2005.
Montana State Auditor and State Insurance and Securities Commissioner
In office 2001–2008
Personal details
Born	1961
Occupation	Attorney
Known for	President of the National Alliance of State Health CO-OPs

John Morrison (born 1961) is an American politician who was the Montana State Auditor and Insurance and Securities Commissioner from 2001-2008, and currently an attorney, writer and businessman. He was the founding president of the National Alliance of State Health CO-OPs (NASHCO), which includes all “Consumer Operated and Oriented Plans” authorized and funded under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. He is also co-founder and vice-chair of the Montana Health CO-OP, one of the first CO-OPs to be approved for funding by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Morrison is a senior partner at Morrison Sherwood Wilson Deola, a public interest law firm based in Helena, Montana. In 2006 he ran unsuccessfully in the Montana Democratic primary for the US Senate nomination.

In the 1990s, Morrison was lead Montana counsel in the state’s Tobacco litigation and represented the New York Times, NBC and other national media in the Unabomber case. Morrison and his wife are co-authors of a Montana political history book: Mavericks: The Lives and Battles of Montana’s Political Heroes. Morrison also authored or co-authored other published works on topics ranging from health insurance to climate change.

Morrison served as Montana State Auditor and State Insurance and Securities Commissioner from 2001–2008. He promoted and implemented Insure Montana, a small business health insurance pool with discounted premiums paid for by an increase in the tobacco tax. Morrison had been advocating the use of increased tobacco tax revenue to reduce health insurance premiums since 2002. Insure Montana won national awards, and became a model for the premium assistance provisions of the Affordable Care Act. John Morrison also drafted Montana’s Initiative 155 (I-155) and led the campaign that created Healthy Montana Kids, which instituted a broad reform and massive expansion of children’s health coverage. In the first year of operation, it brought over $200 million in new federal matching dollars into Montana and covered 10,000 additional children. Healthy Montana Kids now covers 91,000 Montana Children.

As Insurance Commissioner, Morrison banned “discretionary clauses” in group health and disability insurance plans and successfully defended the ban at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in Standard Ins. Co v. Morrison, 584 F. 3d 837 (2009). Through the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), Morrison led passage of a similar model law that has been adopted in more than a dozen states, including New York, California, Michigan, Illinois, and Texas. Morrison also led NAIC opposition to Association Health Plans and fraudulent health insurance.