Representative Myron Bradford Kreidler

Myron Bradford Kreidler (born September 28, 1943) is an American physician, optometrist, and Democratic politician who has served in local, state, and federal office, and who later became the eighth Washington State Insurance Commissioner. Over a career spanning several decades, he has been active in health policy, consumer protection, and insurance regulation, while also drawing on a long record of military service and legislative experience. He previously served one term in the United States Congress from 1993 to 1995, representing Washington’s 9th congressional district.

Kreidler was born on September 28, 1943, and pursued his early education in the Pacific Northwest. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon. Following his undergraduate studies, he entered the United States Army, serving on active duty as an optometry officer during the Vietnam War and the first Persian Gulf War. After his initial Army service, he continued his education at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he obtained a Doctor of Optometry degree and a Master of Public Health in health administration from the UCLA School of Public Health. He later retired from the United States Army Reserve as a lieutenant colonel, completing approximately 20 years of combined active and reserve service.

After completing his professional training, Kreidler settled in Washington State and practiced optometry for two decades. He was employed as an optometrist by Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound in the Olympia clinic for twenty years, where his work in patient care and health systems helped shape his later focus on health reform and insurance regulation. His interest in public service emerged early in his professional life. In 1973, he won a seat on the North Thurston School Board, marking his first elected office and introducing him to local governance and education policy.

Kreidler’s state legislative career began in the mid-1970s and extended over sixteen years. He was elected to the Washington House of Representatives in 1976 and served there until 1984. He then won election to the Washington State Senate, where he served from 1984 to 1992. During his tenure in the Washington Legislature, he developed a reputation as a Democratic lawmaker with a particular interest in health care, insurance, and public administration, experience that would later inform his work at both the federal and state executive levels.

In 1992, Kreidler was elected to the United States House of Representatives as a Democrat from Washington’s newly created 9th congressional district. He served one term in the 103rd Congress from 1993 to 1995. As a member of the House of Representatives, he participated in the legislative process during a significant period in American history, representing the interests of his constituents and contributing to debates on national policy. His service in Congress reflected his longstanding focus on health and consumer issues. In the 1994 election, he was defeated for reelection by Republican Randy Tate, concluding his single term in federal legislative office.

Following his departure from Congress, Kreidler continued in public service through regional and federal executive appointments. In 1995, Washington Governor Mike Lowry appointed him to the Northwest Power Planning Council, a regional body focused on energy planning and environmental issues in the Pacific Northwest. He was subsequently reappointed to the council by Governor Gary Locke and served there until 1998. That year, he was appointed Regional Director for Region 10 of the United States Department of Health and Human Services in Seattle, Washington, a position he held from 1998 until 2000. In that role, he oversaw federal health and human services programs in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, further deepening his involvement in health policy administration. He resigned in 2000 to seek election as Washington State Insurance Commissioner.

Kreidler was elected Washington’s eighth Insurance Commissioner in 2000 and took office in 2001. He was subsequently reelected multiple times and, by winning a sixth term in 2020 with 65 percent of the vote, achieved the best performance for a statewide Democrat in that election cycle. As insurance commissioner, he focused much of his career on health reform and consumer protection, playing a prominent role in implementing the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA) in Washington State. He was the first insurance commissioner in the nation to reject President Barack Obama’s proposal to allow insurers an additional year to sell non-ACA-compliant health plans, arguing for a more rapid transition to the new coverage standards, and he testified before Congress on the law’s impact in Washington. He opposed efforts by the Trump administration to dismantle or weaken the ACA, including attempts to roll back protections for people with preexisting conditions and to expand the sale of short-term, limited-duration medical plans.

In his regulatory capacity, Kreidler advanced several initiatives aimed at strengthening consumer protections in health insurance. In 2019, he proposed legislation to ban “surprise medical billing,” the practice of sending patients unexpected, often large bills for out-of-network services received at in-network facilities. After several high-profile cases drew public attention, support for his proposal increased, and the bill was signed into law later that year. He also took enforcement action against entities he identified as fraudulent health sharing ministries, and in 2019 he fined one such company and its affiliate more than $1 million for selling sham health sharing ministry memberships to thousands of Washington consumers. Beyond health coverage, he has been active nationally on the intersection of insurance and climate risk. Since 2007, he has chaired the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ Climate Change and Global Warming Work Group, leading a successful effort to require insurers to disclose whether and how they are preparing for the potential risks associated with climate change.

Kreidler’s long tenure as insurance commissioner has also drawn criticism and controversy. The Seattle Times editorial board faulted him for being, in its view, slow to enforce mental health parity laws, stating that his office had not taken a single enforcement action on the statute and that a proposed rule to strengthen enforcement had languished for two years. The editorial noted that it took class-action litigation, rather than action by his office, to secure a Washington Supreme Court judgment on behalf of individuals with autism who had been denied coverage by insurers. Workplace issues within the Office of the Insurance Commissioner also drew scrutiny. Taxpayers funded a $450,000 settlement to a whistleblower after State Auditor Troy Kelley declined to investigate her complaint against one of Kreidler’s chief deputies, who ultimately received no discipline. In another case, taxpayers paid a $50,000 settlement following a $20,000 investigation after a chief deputy allegedly harassed a worker who was forced to borrow sick leave from co-workers, while the deputy was placed on two months of paid leave before being dismissed. A separate chief deputy resigned following a 2013 hallway argument over a plant that Kreidler wished to accept as a gift from a special interest, after which most of his executive staff departed. In 2017, as health insurers announced average premium increases of more than 22 percent for 2018, The Seattle Times reported that Kreidler had, just before his 2016 reelection, characterized 2017 increases averaging 13.6 percent as “a one-time adjustment,” and described him as “sympathetic to insurers” despite their substantial surpluses.

In April 2022, further controversy arose when The Seattle Times reported that several former employees and job candidates at the Office of the Insurance Commissioner alleged that Kreidler had used racist or derogatory terms between 2017 and 2022, requested “unusual favors” from nonwhite employees, and been demeaning or rude in workplace interactions. Following these reports, Governor Jay Inslee and the majority and minority leaders of both chambers of the Washington Legislature publicly called on Kreidler to resign, citing the allegations, his acknowledgment of wrongdoing, and his firing of an aide who had criticized his behavior. Kreidler declined to resign and stated in June 2022 that he would remain in office. On May 1, 2023, however, he announced that he would not seek a seventh term in the 2024 election, signaling the approaching end of his long tenure as insurance commissioner.

Kreidler resides in Lacey, Washington, with his wife, Lela Kreidler. They have three grown children and three grandchildren. Over the course of his career, he has been a member of several professional and fraternal organizations, reflecting his dual commitments to health care and public service. His combined experience as a physician, military officer, legislator, member of Congress, regional federal official, and statewide insurance regulator has made him a prominent figure in Washington State’s political and policy landscape for more than four decades.