Sen. Dodd Comments on Insurance Commissioner’s Proposed Regulations

SACRAMENTO -- Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, issued the following statement today regarding Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara’s proposed catastrophic modeling regulations to address California’s insurance crisis:

“Ensuring the availability and affordability of insurance takes a multipronged approach, and these proposed regulations are a piece of the puzzle,” Sen. Dodd said. “There’s much to do to stabilize the market, and I thank Commissioner Lara for moving on multiple fronts to tackle the issue.”

Commissioner Lara’s proposed regulation will have major benefits for Californians in the form of:  

• More reliable rates: Insurance consumers will have more stable costs than under current regulations, which have resulted in sudden and steep increases for those at higher risk of wildfire.
• Greater availability of insurance: Insurance companies will increase their writing because they can better anticipate future losses, rather than making abrupt decisions to non-renew higher-risk policyholders, pause writing, or rapidly increase rates.
• Stronger oversight: The Department of Insurance will have strong public oversight of modeling, which is already being widely used by insurance companies outside of rate-making and across the nation. The Department will have access to models and build expertise, so California can continue to lead on consumer protection.
• Safer communities: Catastrophe models can capture efforts taken by federal, state, and local governments, property owners, communities and utility companies to mitigate the exposure of communities to catastrophic events – encouraging and rewarding those efforts.

Link to commissioner’s announcement: https://www.insurance.ca.gov/0400-news/0100-press-releases/2024/release011-2024.cfm

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Senator Bill Dodd represents the 3rd Senate District, which includes all or portions of Napa, Solano, Yolo, Sonoma, Contra Costa, and Sacramento counties. You can learn more about the district and Senator Dodd at www.sen.ca.gov/dodd.