After three decades serving at the Bureau of Insurance, Cunningham announced her retirement.
Jacqueline K. Cunningham, Virginia insurance commissioner, announced her intention to retire at the end of the year. She has been working with the State Corporation Commission’s Bureau of Insurance for a total of thirty years.
Cunningham was first appointed to the Virginia Commission as insurance commissioner in 2011.
She began her post as the thirteenth Virginia insurance commissioner on January 1, 2011. That said, she was first hired by the Bureau of Insurance in 1981. Her first position was as a policy forms reviewer within the bureau’s Life and Health Division. For a short span of time, Cunningham left the bureau in order to work for a private insurance company. There, she held the position of compliance officer.
That said, she came back to the bureau once again in 1993 with a new post as senior examiner. After that, she also served as supervisor of the Forms and Rates Section, as chief examiner and as deputy commissioner in the bureau’s Life and Health Division. Her next job was that of state insurance commissioner.
As Virginia insurance commissioner, she led the Bureau of Insurance as it oversaw compliance with state laws.
The Virginia insurance laws apply to more than 2,400 insurance companies, groups and plans operating within the state. Furthermore, it’s oversight extended to almost 248,000 insurance agencies and agents.
This put Cunningham in a central role in any of the state-level insurance regulations and implementations. As such, she was at the helm when the health care reform from the Affordable Care Act came into play under President Obama. She was a member of the Virginia Health Reform Initiative Advisory Council throughout the launch of the health care law.
She continues to hold a position on the Health Insurance Reform Commission. In that role, she offers her technical support to the efforts made by the committee to review issues relating to health insurance. She also provides possible solutions for dealing with the health coverage requirements of both the government and the residents of the state.
When Cunningham retires as Virginia insurance commissioner, she will also be stepping down from many other roles in the industry, as well.