Reports

THE DISINFORMATION ECHO CHAMBER: How California’s For-Profit Utilities Built Political Support For A Wildfire Utility Bailout

August 6, 2026  ·  Alexandra Nagy

California's investor-owned, for-profit utilities are pursuing one of the largest corporate bailouts in California history — one that would shift billions of dollars in wildfire liability away from themselves for causing catastrophic fires on to wildfire survivors,…

How Technology Shapes Property Insurance

January 23, 2026  ·  Justin Kloczko

“A few months before the fire, I told him that I wanted the house to be insured to the max because I wanted to be able to sleep at night. All I got was a declarations page saying that the mid-800s would adequately cover me in case of total loss. So we just believed…

The Subcontracting Underworld

January 23, 2026  ·  Justin Kloczko

“The longer things went on, the more we realized that this is just not how this works at all, and that the companies they’re hiring don't really have our best interests in mind.”

Lowball: What Fire Survivors Want You To Know About Insurance Claims

July 2, 2025  ·  Justin Kloczko

Table of Contents Introduction1 Don’t Rush: Test for Toxins Before Cleaning4 Know What Tests Miss9 Walk the Loss with the Insurance Adjuster10 Smoke Damage is Fire Damage12 Push Back on Cosmetic Insurance Fixes14 Know Your Policy16 Make a Record!17 Persistence Pays18…

How Citizen Enforcement of Proposition 103 has Saved Californians $5.5 Billion – and Why the Insurance Industry Hates It

February 1, 2024  ·  Carmen Balber

When California’s insurance regulator operated behind closed doors, the insurance companies always won. Insurance premiums soared, people were denied insurance for no legitimate reason, and insurance companies reaped windfall profits. That’s why, when California voters…

Up In Smoke: How Insurance Companies and the Insurance Commissioner Burn Wildfire Victims

July 11, 2022  ·  John Ennis

For many years, insurance companies have used illegal coverage limitations in California1 homeowners, condominium, and renters insurance policies to deny or lowball claims after a wildfire disaster. The financial harm—and the trauma—that consumers have suffered as a…

Rate Regulation: The Rx For Medical Malpractice Insurance Rates

March 17, 2021  ·  Mark Reback

There’s no question that the medical malpractice insurers are making more money than they should, and what’s really interesting is several of these companies which are dominant in the market are owned and operated by doctors themselves. And so doctors are charging…

What Works: A Review of Auto Insurance Rate Regulation in America and How Best Practices Save Billions of Dollars

November 17, 2013  ·  Doug Heller

Over the past quarter century, auto insurance expenditures in America have risen by more than 40 percent. Consumers in some states are paying 80 percent, 90 percent, and even 100 percent more for auto insurance than they paid in 1989. These increases have accrued…

Health Reform and Insurance Regulation: Can’t Have One Without the Other

May 5, 2011  ·  Jamie Court

Health insurance premiums are increasing at a rate faster than medical inflation, especially in the volatile individual and small group markets, and worker incomes have not kept pace. The passage of the federal reform law triggered further outsized increases by…

False Accounting: How Medical Malpractice Insurance Companies Inflate Losses to Justify Sudden Surges in Rates and Tort Reform

December 7, 2005  ·  Jamie Court

FTCR notes that many insurers have falsely characterized loss data in statements to lawmakers, news media and the public, and cautions that lawmakers and regulators should not rely upon the insurance industry's current loss projections, because those figures are not…

How Insurance Reform Lowered Doctors’ Medical Malpractice Rates in California

March 7, 2003  ·  Consumer Watchdog

A 1988 California insurance reform initiative (Proposition 103), and not the state’s 1975 malpractice law, is the reason California doctors’ medical malpractice premiums have dropped and stabilized over the last 14 years.