By Blanca Begert, POLITICO
GETTING PERSONAL: Put Consumer Watchdog and the Personal Insurance Federation of California in the same room, and you’re bound to get fireworks.
Representatives for the two organizations drew vastly different pictures of the spiraling property insurance market and took swings at each other at a Sacramento hearing today of the independent state oversight agency called the Little Hoover Commission, which is embarking on a study of the state’s property insurance problems.
PIFC President Rex Frazier blamed insurers’ retreat from California on what he called outdated regulations that don’t let rates reflect the increasing costs of natural disasters like wildfires.
Consumer Watchdog Executive Director Carmen Balber, meanwhile, cast insurers as using the admittedly real increase in costs hitting the entire country as an excuse to pressure officials to deregulate California, which has some of the country’s best consumer protections thanks to the voter-passed Proposition 103.
“This is the industry’s 30-plus-year-long campaign to find a way to get rid of this law and they’re really seeing the leverage point now,” said Balber.
Frazier denied there was any collusion and shot back.
“It’s easy to throw rocks,” Frazier said. “It’s an incredibly adversarial system with these outside groups. … We don’t have negotiating partners. We don’t have respectful conversations.”
Notably absent from the discussion was Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, who released draft rules this month that are the cornerstone of his strategy to entice insurers back to the market. Little Hoover Commission Chair Pedro Navasaid the commission invited Lara or his staff, but the requests were unsuccessful. Nava said he hopes to hear from Lara or staff at further hearings.
Insurance Department spokesperson Michael Soller said in an email that Lara had already been to oversight hearings and remains focused on his reform work. — CvK