36 Facts About Mike Hatch

Michael Alan Hatch was born on November 12,1948 and is an American politician and lawyer.

Mike Hatch is a 1966 graduate of East High School in Duluth.

Mike Hatch was in port in South Chicago during the riots after Martin Luther King, Jr.

Mike Hatch earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1973.

Mike Hatch was a trial lawyer in private practice in the 1970s and became chair of the state DFL Party in 1980.

Mike Hatch, who had the least amount of political experience, campaigned as a centrist who focused on economic issues and promised to elect more Democrats in the 1980 election.

In 1981, Mike Hatch printed political buttons, posters and letterhead under the name "The Centrists," promoting the notion that the party had to stand for more than just a conglomeration of interest groups.

Mike Hatch got enacted into law several dozen new standards to provide fair processing of insurance claims for policyholders.

Mike Hatch was commerce commissioner during the farm crisis of the mid-1980s.

Mike Hatch created an "Interest Buydown Program" in 1985 to pay a portion of the farmer's interest on farm loans.

Mike Hatch responded to the doubling and tripling of rates on two fronts.

Mike Hatch said that the insurer was responsible for its agents' actions and that it had to pay on the policies.

The dispute between Chubb and Mike Hatch ended up in federal court in Cincinnati, Ohio, with one issue being whether Mike Hatch could suspend Chubb's insurance license if it didn't pay on the policies.

Mike Hatch had pledged to be an active attorney general who would be the "people's lawyer," not just represent state agencies.

On June 9,1999, Mike Hatch drew national attention when he became the first state official in the country to file a lawsuit against a national bank for violating customers' privacy.

The month before he took office, Mike Hatch announced the formation of a hotline to take complaints from patients with problems with HMOs.

One of Mike Hatch's most cited accomplishments as attorney general was his lawsuit against Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota.

When Mike Hatch filed the suit, only six families were willing to be named in it because of privacy concerns for their children.

Mike Hatch later expanded the lawsuit to include testimony from many more families and from former Blue Cross employees who said they intentionally declined coverage simply to save the insurer money.

Mike Hatch eventually secured a legal settlement with Blue Cross that created a three-judge panel to automatically review any decision by the insurer to deny mental health care for children.

In 2000, Mike Hatch launched a year-long compliance review of Allina Health System, the state's largest hospital system.

Mike Hatch urged Allina to split into two companies, separating Medica, an HMO with one million members, from Allina, which ran 19 hospitals and 48 clinics.

Mike Hatch then launched a compliance review of HealthPartners, another nonprofit HMO, in 2001.

Mike Hatch then launched a probe of Fairview Health Systems, another hospital system, finding that it aggressively collected debts from patients too poor to pay their bills and did not offer charity care, in violation of its mission as a nonprofit hospital.

In 2005 and 2006, Mike Hatch conducted a compliance review of Blue Cross, the state's largest health insurer, which found that it had amassed more than $1 billion in financial reserves while raising premiums and shifting costs to consumers.

Mike Hatch was active in protecting vulnerable patients in care facilities from abuse.

Mike Hatch took on other causes on behalf of the vulnerable.

Mike Hatch wielded the antitrust and regulatory powers of the office to promote market competition and regulate markets that were dominated by monopolies.

Mike Hatch filed a petition to ask a court to order that essential state government services be funded in the event of a shutdown.

Mike Hatch was active in protecting consumers in other sales transactions.

Mike Hatch was reelected to a second term as attorney general on November 5,2002.

Mike Hatch won more votes in that election than any candidate in any previous race for constitutional office in Minnesota history.

Paul Wellstone's death, Mike Hatch is one of the few voices speaking out on behalf of those who have not shared in the nation's prosperity.

Mike Hatch was an early leader in taking to task illegal practices in the real estate and mortgage industries.

In 2005 Mike Hatch appeared in court to argue that an insurance company should pay the claim of two little girls who survived an airplane crash that killed their mother in northern Minnesota.

Mike Hatch returned to private law practice after his term ended in January 2007.