March 15th, 2010

Reports the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Just because Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner Joel Ario went to a Christmas party at President Obama’s house in Washington . . .

Just because the two of them wound up sitting next to each other in the White House’s Roosevelt Room when Obama dropped in on a recent meeting of insurance commissioners, insurers, and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius . . .

Just because Ario got prime seating at Arcadia University last week when the president spoke there about health care . . .

. . . doesn’t mean the president and the insurance commissioner are bosom buddies.

But “I like him,” Ario said. “I was certainly impressed with the guy. It was a nice experience to have. He’s very low-key, a very empathetic listener, and I think quite persuasive.”

It is Ario’s leadership in an organization of state insurance commissioners that put him in contact with the president over issues involved in the current debate on health care.

“I think it’s important for the president to be out there,” Ario said last week, speaking in two interviews, one just outside Arcadia University in Glenside and the other from his office in Harrisburg.

“He puts the issues in broad context,” Ario said. “He puts the broad questions out there and ties them together thematically. If he’s not out there, what tends to get covered is a lot of parliamentarian rule – a lot of fragmented stories about process.”

Find out more.