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Insurance Commissioner candidate Jane Kim wants to establish a state-run single-payer disaster insurance program with guaranteed coverage. Gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra pledges to freeze insurance rates in an affordability state of emergency.
California’s election results are still being tabulated as of this writing. But it doesn’t take binoculars to spot a giant red flag flying on the horizon.
The leading Democratic candidates for two key positions are disconcertingly receptive to a disastrous idea: blowing up California’s insurance market just as it’s starting to reach more stable ground. This would, in turn, destroy the state’s efforts to build more housing and make it virtually impossible for would-be homebuyers to secure a mortgage.
After years of insurance companies severely restricting business or leaving the state altogether — thanks to climate-change-fueled megafires and state regulations that make it near-impossible to adequately price this risk — they’re slowly beginning to return due to sweeping reforms enacted by outgoing Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara. The reforms aren’t perfect, and the devastating 2025 Los Angeles wildfires exposed issues that urgently need to be addressed. But they’ve also led to meaningful, if fragile, progress. Among other things, the rate of growth is finally beginning to decrease for the FAIR Plan, which offers bare-bones coverage for those who can’t get it anywhere else — a critical step to improving the health of the market.
Yet Xavier Becerra, California’s likely next governor, has rashly — and ridiculously — pledged to freeze insurance rates if he’s elected by declaring an affordability state of emergency…
And Kim is a particularly persuasive messenger — articulate, poised, confident and smart, she rattles off statistics, analogies and arguments in clear, easily digestible ways.
“Politics is an art, and this is going to sound very overly confident — I think I’m good at it,” Kim said in her endorsement interview. “The ultimate job that I’m running for is a political job. It is the job of sitting across from insurers, the governor, the state Legislature and being able to work out a deal.”…
To her credit, Kim hasn’t proposed a blanket freeze on insurance rates — rather, she’s floated the idea of preventing policyholders’ rates from rising simply because they filed claims. …(more)
At least they may work together which may be helpful. Between the two of them they may work something out. In my opinion the author of this article sounds like she is more confused and un-informed about the insurance business than the two she accuses of being un-informed.