John Morrison

John Morrison (born 1961) is an American attorney and politician who served as the elected Montana State Auditor and Insurance and Securities Commissioner from 2001 to 2009. Morrison has been a leader in health insurance policy and litigation and has handled prominent legal cases. He is the senior partner at Morrison Sherwood Wilson Deola, a public interest law firm based in Helena, Montana. In 2006, he ran unsuccessfully against Jon Tester in the Montana Democratic primary for the United States Senate nomination. Career Montana State Auditor Morrison served as Montana State Auditor and Insurance and Securities Commissioner from 2001 to 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. 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 more than half of the children in Montana. 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.