If the California fair plan goes bankrupt, what does that mean for the average consumer, and how likely is that to happen? Jamie Court says you can bet that if the Fair Plan goes bankrupt, and it's a good bet it will, the insurance companies will come after us to pay the debts that they owe.
Consumer Watchdog has been critical of the new regulations. From the beginning it was an attempt by companies to get all ratepayers to foot the bill for disaster losses.
Consumers should try and get a copy of their insurance policy and then start collecting receipts, start recording everything. Many consumers don't know that they have a right to get reimbursement from their insurance company for evacuation costs, and they can get a big portion of their policy limits up front. If you're in an evacuation area and especially if you already know you lost your home, contact your insurance company right away. You can get an advance on your policy limits.
Carmen Balber says it's pretty easy to understand that if you put all the risky people in one basket and something big happens, we start to run into financial troubles.
It's a long road, but there are a lot of protections in place in California to ensure that your insurance company does pay what they've promised. It's really important for those who are evacuated now, especially if they know already that they've lost their home, that they start documenting everything and that starts with receipts for their evacuation costs because one thing that some homeowners may not know is that their insurance company will generally cover additional expenses for leaving your home.
Consumer Watchdog says this new rule is not the answer. Companies have multiple loopholes they can use to not increase the amount of coverage they are offering in california.
Consumer Watchdog says the regulations are seriously flawed. There is no legally binding commitment in this document that they have to cover more people but we're all going to be paying more.
Safeco, a branch of liberty mutual, California's fourth largest home insurance company, has filed papers with the California department of insurance that it will stop selling condo policies. It comes just days after Farmers, the second largest California insurer, said it will start selling condo policies and renters policies again.
Carmen Balber says the insurance companies will make more money, but the crisis will remain. The commissioner has folded to the insurance companies' blackmail.
Is Ricardo Lara's insurance plan of action on the side of consumers or insurers? ABC 7 news reporter Stephanie Sierra holds the commissioner accountable on what exactly will change.
Carmen Balber of Consumer Watchdog says we need a mandate that says if you want to sell home and auto insurance in California you have to sell to Californians and communities that harden their homes.
John Garamendi, the first elected California insurance commissioner for two terms over eight years, has called on a fellow democrat and current insurance commissioner, Ricardo Lara, to resign, saying Lara is simply not doing his job.
Consumer Watchdog claims State Farm general has grossly overpaid its parent company for reinsurance over the past decade and is trying to have consumers foot the bill.
Seven on your side found Senator Caballero received more than $1 million from finance, insurance and real estate industries since elected to the state assembly in 2006, the most out of any of her colleagues serving on the senate insurance committee.
Commissioner Ricardo Lara promised insurance companies would be required to cover 85% of homeowners in wildfire areas in exchange for rate hikes but no such requirement exists in his proposed rules, and the new rules do not provide coverage for policyholders who have been dropped by insurers.
The homeowners insurance crisis is taking center stage at city hall while insurance commissioner Lara is testifying inside, Consumer Watchdog is out there saying the regulations he's proposing to deal with the homeowners insurance crisis fall short.
https://youtu.be/3RQFYnkX9i0?si=yqCJ9dNwfw0X78jZ
Homeowners who were dropped by their insurance company and confronted with massive rate hikes will speak out at a press conference prior to a legislative oversight hearing of Insurance...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0oXJK5y8Ok
Harvey Rosenfield says insurance companies are permitted for the first time in California to use computer models that are black box models that cannot be assessed by the public....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H80Vy9FObt8
Last month, State Farm Insurance announced it would be dropping thousands of California policies beginning this summer, nearly a year after announcing it would no longer accept homeowner insurance...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bPtJt4YMWI
Carmen Balber wants the legislature to require insurance companies provide coverage for homeowners who have taken steps to reduce fire risks and protect their properties.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JYwGtz215w
Harvey Rosenfield, founder of consumer watchdog, says the insurance companies are intentionally forcing homeowners into the fair plan as a way of getting every homeowner in the state to...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPjpJpnGA8I
Carmen Balber says what we need is a mandate that home insurers who want the privilege of selling home and auto insurance in California, sell to every California who...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uifrHeXzhAs
Consumer Watchdog has been urging for years now that California require insurance companies who want to sell home or auto insurance in California sell to everyone who does the right thing and protects their homes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZK-XM2oKCA
State Farms last big rate increase came just last week, assuming that they sell insurance policies to people who need it in the state, and now they're canceling more...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD4QbsrSgAs
Carmen Balber says restoring options for consumers will safeguard an independent transparent review of rate filings by the department of insurance experts which is a bedrock principle of California...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GAY6xfdKTA
Harvey Rosenfield of Consumer Watchdog says this new plan would allow the insurance companies to propose these models without public scrutiny, and there's this there's nothing in this regulation...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmuyO5DfVM8
Carmen Balber says we have seen this problem with other cars impact consumers ability to get auto insurance. Insurance companies cannot just increase prices overnight they have to go...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssxyylYXWtw
"One of the other things that we're urging the state to do is create a public model to look at climate risk in California that allows us to look...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU6BGRhfuAE&feature=youtu.be
Carmen Balber says homeowners should push state lawmakers to hold insurance companies accountable, so what people can really do aside from shopping around is go to their state lawmakers and say enough is enough.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3UAWhrsbtU
Harvey Rosenfield discusses how a big selling point for the Insurance proposal, we were told, was a guarantee that insurance companies would sell more insurance in difficult to insure...
Jamie Court of Consumer Watchdog says the new rules aren't necessary. Records show California is already more profitable for insurers than many states.
Insurance companies for the first time will be allowed to factor in the future risks of extreme weather and wildfires into the rates, that means your insurance rate is probably going up. Officials are willing to make us pay the insurance industry's ransom.
Harvey Rosenfield says the insurance companies are using climate change as an excuse to make changes in rules that have saved Californians hundreds of billions of dollars in the last 35 years.
