Friend Honored

Friend Honored

The Braille Monitor

_July 1997

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PHOTO/CAPTION: Jim

Omvig

An Old Friend Is Honored:

Our Fight Against Insurance Discrimination Remembered

by James H. Omvig

From the Editor:

Jim Omvig of Tucson, Arizona, has been an active leader of the National Federation

of the Blind since the early 1960's. He has played a key role in several major

Federation victories, including the struggle to stamp out insurance discrimination

against the blind. This is what he says:

In late February, 1997, I was contacted

by Mrs. Kay Williams of Des Moines, Iowa, formerly an Administrative Assistant

with the Iowa Insurance Department. Kay told me that an Insurance Department

of Iowa's Hall of Fame was being established, and she asked for my help.

Kay was nominating former Iowa Insurance

Commissioner Herbert Anderson as a charter inductee into the new Hall of Fame

(Herb passed away in 1979). Since she knew that Herb had played a key role in

the NFB's fight to eliminate insurance discrimination against the blind, she

felt that a letter from me outlining Herb's contribution in our struggle would

give additional weight to her nomination.

Of course I agreed to do it. I have now

heard again from Mrs. Williams. She told me that Herb Anderson was indeed inducted

posthumously as a charter member. She said that my letter outlining what Herb

did for the Federation was a pivotal factor in his selection.

Following is the text of my letter of

support:

March 4, 1997

Mrs. Kay Williams, Director

Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board

Des Moines, Iowa

Re: Insurance Department of Iowa's Hall

of Fame

Support for the Posthumous Induction of Herbert (Herb)W. Anderson

Dear Mrs. Williams:

The purpose of this letter is to urge

as strongly as I can that former Iowa Insurance Commissioner Herbert W. Anderson

be among the charter inductees into the Insurance Department of Iowa's Hall

of Fame. I consider it both an honor and a privilege to have known and worked

with Herb, and it is also both an honor and a privilege for me to have the opportunity

to write this letter in support of his induction. I apologize for its length,

but the impact Herb had on the lives of blind Americans can be understood only

if the story of Herb Anderson and the blind of America is told.

The poet Kahlil Gibran, the author of

The Prophet, wrote, "Work is love made visible." I believe that this

brief but profound phrase captures the essence of the man Herb Anderson. He

loved and thrived on his work; he loved the law; he loved good and right and

justice; he loved his family and his fellow human beings; and he demonstrated

all of this love through his tireless work and his monumental achievements.

Also his loyalty, his character, and his integrity were above reproach. And,

as if all of this were not enough, it must also be pointed out that Herb possessed

a healthy supply of plain old common sense.

I first met Herb Anderson professionally

(I had previously met him socially) in July of 1976. My wife Sharon and I had

traveled by plane from Des Moines to Los Angeles and back during the first week

of July of that year. At the Des Moines airport we tried to purchase flight

insurance. The carrier would sell $375,000 of insurance to my sighted wife but

would sell me only $20,000 worth because I am blind.

Upon returning to Des Moines, I went

to see Herb to file a complaint of insurance discrimination against the blind.

Even though the Iowa Insurance Regulation did not specifically prohibit discrimination

based upon blindness, Herb accepted my complaint since, in general, the regulations

did prohibit unfair discrimination. His acceptance of this complaint induced

speedy action, and the discriminating carrier resolved the problem within a

matter of days.

However, by this time I had informed

Herb that flight insurance was not a blind person's only or even his or her

major insurance problem. Some companies would not sell life insurance to us

at all. Others would sell, but at an increased rate. Some would sell only to

the well-adjusted blind. Many would not sell policies with double-indemnity

or waiver-of-premium benefits, and many would not sell medical insurance at

all. All of this was based upon the assumption that we were poor risks.

It must be understood that I was not

asking for any kind of special treatment for the blind. I was asking only for

equal treatment under the law, and Herb understood and accepted this premise.

Demonstrating something of the thoroughness

and fairness of Herb Anderson, he did not simply accept my telling him that

all of the foregoing was true. To learn the objective facts for himself and

for the Insurance Commission, he conducted a survey of the major carriers doing

business in Iowa.

The results were so shocking and so outrageous

that Herb decided to propose a rule-making procedure to establish an Iowa Rule

specifically prohibiting unfair discrimination against the blind. This was a

first in the United States.

I shall never forget hearing day. Herb

had set aside a small hearing room, and he had also decided to conduct the hearing

himself. He had assumed there would be two or three witnesses. Instead, more

than two-hundred industry officials and representatives from throughout this

nation showed up to oppose the rule. The industry does not like to be regulated.

The hearing had to be delayed until he could find a larger facility.

After each of those officials who testified

in opposition was finished making a presentation, Herb asked, "And what

empirical data, what evidence do you have to show that the blind are in fact

poor risks?" None was able to produce a shred of evidence, and Herb ultimately

adopted the rule. His action did not win any friends for him in the industry,

but he stood firm in his conviction that the blind must be treated fairly unless

it could be shown that we were, in fact, poor risks.

Herb's quest for justice and his deep

commitment to and concern for his fellow human beings then led him to work with

us and to take up the issue of insurance discrimination against the blind as

a national project. He invited me to come to Miami in the fall of 1977 to address

the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). He said that, from

time to time, the NAIC adopted model regulations, and he wanted to work with

the blind of America first to establish a model and then to have that model

prohibiting unfair insurance discrimination against the blind adopted formally

in each of the several states.

Herb was suggesting that the two of us

engage in no small enterprise--he was proposing that we challenge and take on

the entire insurance industry in America. He was fearless.

I did go to Florida and made the speech.

With Herb's help and guidance, the NAIC decided to create a task force to study

the issue.

And what a time we had! The task force

consisted of thirteen members--eleven industry officials, Herb, and me. Some

of the early task force meetings were stormy, and Herb and I each came in for

some pretty vigorous verbal abuse. But again Herb stood like a rock. The more

hostile and outrageous the attack, the more committed and steadfast he became.

To divert for a moment, I must tell another

story since it further defines and distinguishes the character and integrity

of Herbert Anderson. In the spring of 1977 (at its annual state convention),

the National Federation of the Blind of Iowa bestowed its highest honor, The

Altig Award, on Herb for his major contribution to civil rights protection for

the blind. For many years we had presented each recipient of this award with

an engraved plaque in the shape of Iowa and a suitably engraved gold watch,

and we did the same for Herb.

After the public presentation had been

made, Herb came to me in private and told me that he could not accept the gold

watch unless we would permit him to pay us for it. Frankly, the blind of Iowa

who knew of the incident were distressed and outraged that the laws had become

so rigid that we couldn't honor a deserving Iowa state official with the gift

of an engraved watch. But in the final analysis Herb won the day. We agreed

with him, he paid, and he kept the watch. On the issue of ethics in government,

Herb was no doubt a man ahead of his time.

Now back to the national anti-discrimination

campaign. Ultimately Herb and I convinced the other eleven on the task force

to agree to a model regulation, and the NAIC adopted it at its June, 1978, meeting

in Washington, D.C. I made a speech to the group and talked with individuals

for several days urging adoption of the model but behind the scenes Herb was

obviously the one who did a lot of the convincing and vote -getting.

We then worked state by state for adoption

of the regulation. Through all of this work and close contact with the various

states, I learned an astonishing thing--that in many of the states the insurance

industry controls the state insurance commissions. I dare say that the same

was not true for Herb. He was his own man, and his sole concern was to protect

the rights and interests of the citizens of Iowa.

Herb attended National Conventions of

the National Federation of the Blind both in New Orleans in 1977 and Baltimore

in 1978. He reported both on his work in Iowa and also his national effort through

the NAIC. He received the Dr. Newel Perry Award, the highest recognition a non-Federationist

can receive, from the National Federation of the Blind, in 1977 in New Orleans.

By 1978 he had become a beloved figure among the blind of America. Again, in

presenting him with the Perry Award, we gave him an engraved plaque, but this

time we did not make the mistake of placing him in the unfortunate and embarrassing

position of having to buy another expensive, engraved gold watch from us.

It should be noted as an aside that over

time Herb's interests and concerns for the blind broadened beyond the issue

of insurance. He became interested in and committed to the much larger struggle

of social justice for the blind.

Now it is almost twenty years later.

Most blind Americans routinely purchase all types of insurance on an equal basis

with the sighted without so much as a ripple. Many of the blind of this generation

are not even aware of the struggle. But Herb truly made his mark in the annals

of the blind and in our larger struggle to achieve first-class citizenship.

Between July of 1976 and the time of

Herb's passing in 1979, he and Jodie, his wife, and Sharon and I became close

personal friends. I had the opportunity to observe him socially as well as professionally.

I have never known a finer human being or a more compassionate, committed, or

distinguished public official. His love was clearly made visible through his

good and abundant work.

Herb touched our lives, and Sharon and

I personally, and the blind of America generally, are all the better and richer

for it. Herbert W. Anderson truly deserves to be a posthumous charter inductee

into the Insurance Department of Iowa's Hall of Fame.

Cordially,

James H. Omvig