California Insurance Regulators Fast-Tracking Rate Hike Reviews Amid Wildfire Losses

The California Insurance Commission is streamlining rate hike requests from insurers in an effort, it says, to stabilize the market while protecting consumers, according to a memo to insurers released Aug. 9. “Consumers are hurting, businesses continue to lose coverage, wildfires are ravaging our state—and we do not have the luxury of time,” Ricardo Lara, insurance commissioner, said in a press release Friday. “I am ultimately responsible for fixing this crisis, and I am moving forward to meet my commitment to complete long-needed reforms this year.” Tasked with protecting consumers from “excessive, inadequate, and unfairly discriminatory insurance rates” while ensuring the marketplace is accessible and competitive, the insurance commission’s review process includes examining applications and moving the process forward as quickly as possible within a 60-day timeline, according to rules established by Proposition 103—passed by voters in 1988....