1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

I am asking you to make California's homeowners insurance market a top priority this session, and where the Department of Insurance cannot move fast enough, to act directly through legislation. We share a goal: Californians should be able to buy insurance at a fair price. The consumer protections behind Prop 103 were meant to serve that goal, and they still matter. But the market is no longer functioning. Major carriers have restricted or stopped writing new policies, and homeowners are being pushed onto the FAIR Plan, which was designed as an insurer of last resort, not a primary market. Because FAIR Plan losses are recovered through assessments passed on to policyholders, homeowners in low-risk areas are now paying to offset losses in high-risk ones. That is a hidden tax, and a growing contingent liability for the state. A severe fire season could trigger further assessments and accelerate the spiral. There is also a fairness problem. For decades, implicit subsidies kept premiums below true risk, which rewarded building in the most hazardous places and made compact development in safer areas comparatively less attractive. Prices should tell people the truth about risk, and public help should go to vulnerable households, not to the places most exposed to loss. I urge you to: • Declare insurance market stability a legislative priority and schedule hearings this session. • Pass reforms that allow risk-based pricing and reinsurance costs in rates, paired with enforceable commitments to write policies in distressed areas. • Limit FAIR Plan assessments on low-risk policyholders and require a plan to reduce its exposure over time. • Align land-use and mitigation policy to accelerate new housing that is directed toward lower-risk, walkable areas to ensure that displaced people have safe affordable housing in California Thank you for your attention to this.