VACAVILLE, CA – AUGUST 20: Sarah Hawkins, of Vacaville, and her husband Andy dig through the rubble after their home was destroyed by a fire in Vacaville, Calif., on Thursday, Aug. 20, 2020. The LNU Lightning Complex fires began in Napa and Sonoma counties and have traveled into Solano, Lake and Yolo counties while burning more than 200 square miles. Gov.
Forcing decisions within 120 days would hamper consumer groups’ ability to provide effective input into the process and challenge attempts to raise rates — oversight that has saved California consumers $6 billion since 2002, Balber said. Consumer Watchdog’s founder authored the state’s voter-approved insurance regulations.
“It makes no changes to the rules in Prop 103 for how much an insurance company can charge, which continues to be that rates cannot be ‘excessive, inadequate, or unfairly discriminatory,’” Stack said. “This is part of our larger package of solutions to ensure Californians have adequate access to insurance and combat market exodus that hurts consumers.”in the wake of massive wildfires in recent years that have led to billions of dollars in claims.
“Year-long delays in the rate-approval process have created a significant market imbalance – forcing more than half of the state’s top 15 insurers to restrict new policies or exit out of the market entirely,” said Denni Ritter, vice-president for state government relations at the American Property Casualty Insurance Association. “Streamlining approvals is key to modernizing our regulatory system and fixing the California insurance crisis.