Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara. (Kevin Sanders for California Globe)
Weak Leadership is Failing California’s Insurance Market
Insurance companies cannot continue to provide coverage with inadequate rates
By Stacy Korsgaden, July 3, 2024 3:45 pm
They say weak leaders make hard times. Under the leadership of Ricardo Lara, the California Department of Insurance is cracking under pressure. The California insurance market is at a breaking point, and Lara is missing in action.
As reported by the San Francisco Chronicle on July 1st, Lara has avoided hearings and opportunities to testify before the Little Hoover Commission about the ongoing crisis.
Established in 1962, the Little Hoover Commission serves as a watchdog over state government operations. Inspired by the federal Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch, nicknamed the “Hoover Commission,” it investigates and proposes ways to make state government more efficient and cost-effective.
As a business owner, real estate investor, and homeowner, I have repeatedly visited the Department of Insurance website seeking updates and communication regarding the insurance crisis. The inability to obtain fire insurance is spilling over from foothill properties to residential areas that should be easy to insure. The website, while touting a new “Sustainable Insurance Plan,” uses buzzwords like “renewable” and “sustainable,” which many have come to disdain as replacements for common sense and responsibility.
Lara is quick to announce his efforts to protect consumers, but at what cost? The actions of Lara and other government officials are strangling the marketplace they aim to protect.
Insurance is a product. Are we heading towards socialism in our personal lines market, or will we return to the competition and capitalism that built our country?
Californians must recognize the impact of Proposition 103, passed in 1988. After surviving legal challenges, it was implemented, allowing the Department of Insurance to control insurance rates. The details are complex, but the bottom line is that homeowners’ rates in California have been suppressed because rate filings by companies are slow and expensive. Insurance companies cannot continue to provide coverage with inadequate rates. Compounding the issue, our California government leaders refuse to take a tough stance on crime, reconsider or reimagine our timber industry, and, most importantly, rewrite or abolish Proposition 103.
Solving these issues requires real leadership. Ricardo Lara is not the right person to lead this change. It’s time for new leadership so we can return to enjoying California.
a President's Council agent for 14 years of her career, one of the top 150 agents in the country out of 15,000 agents at the time. She is still a licensed insurance agent, but focuses today as a financial advisor. Stacy can be reached at Stacykorsgaden@gmail.com
- Weak Leadership is Failing California’s Insurance Market - July 3, 2024
RELATED ARTICLES
-
-
August 23, 2019 -
Inadequate rates? The rates here must be amongst the highest in the country and no one can afford them. What do you want? Blood?
One can’t legitimately complain about rates without also discussing hazard, risk, and loss experience. The money for payouts has to come from someone. The hazards in California are predominately wildfire and earthquake. Earthquake has been carved out for separate policies and wildfire should be also. Risk varies across the state for each and should be part of the rate calculation. The insurance would no doubt be very expensive and homeowners would have a choice between spending money on insurance or spending it on hardening their home against the hazard. Distorting the situation are the ridiculous home rebuild costs and litigation costs in California. We need finer grained rate structures so homeowners can build the coverage they need and can afford. Aggregation is not the consumers friend.
Great points Rick – especially “Distorting the situation are the ridiculous home rebuild costs and litigation costs in California.”
THIS is the crux of the matter!!! California’s virtue-signaling idiot “leaders” insist that any rebuilds following damage or disaster must be rebuilt with all the latest “sustainable”/”renewable”/”green” features like solar panels, specialized roofing and on and on…
Rather than serving their CONSTITUENTS, these dumbass Democrats serve the UN/WEF Agenda 2030 via the rebuilding standards, which, when taken into inflationary pressures brought about by “Bidenomics”, creates a financial risk that insurance companies are not willing to undertake.
What do you say that we try voting a STRAIGHT REPUBLICAN TICKET this November and ignore all the Democrat chicken-littles crying about “our Democracy”…
What do we have to lose??? Every aspect of state governance is a dumpster fire, and the insurance market is at the top of the heap, Lara is an idiota, and completely unqualified for the role… bet he never took a Finance or Statistics class in his life, so no wonder the insurance companies just throw up their hands and exit the state…
God forbid we FAIR plan holders ever have to file a claim…
Sure, I will try AGAIN voting GOP, but this 30+ year losing streak grows tiresome…..
The California Insurance Commission is run by a bunch of idiots. So instead of letting rates go up, now we have no insurance. Good job, Dumbocrats. My homeowners insurance is not going to be renewed. What are these idiots doing about? Nothing. They are a bunch of good for nothing morons.
This is typical of the Dumbocrats running this state. Everything they touch turns to sh*t.
https://ricardolara.com/about/
Want to laugh your head off??? Read this tripe and take a shot every time you see a “woke” word or phrase…
You’ll be falling down drunk by the end…
This is just another “community organizer” gaining name recognition for ever upward political appointments on the basis of said recognition, NOT for achievement or quality of life improvements for constituents…
LARA IS A LOSER!!!
I was just going to post that this “leader” has zero business experience. How many dead weights like this are we paying for in the state government?
vote NO on every tax or spending increase on the ballot this fall .