Every year the insurance industry increases rates across the country, demanding that consumers pay more money for less coverage. In California, property insurance companies cannot raise their prices whenever they want, they first must get approval from the elected Insurance Commissioner. 

As Insurance Commissioner Lalo would immediately deny approval for all major rate increases, launch an audit of rate hikes over the last 5 years, and establish guidelines to quickly rollback rates. Under our leadership, insurance companies will not get higher rates if they continue to exploit policyholders and fire survivors with unethical claim procedures.

As the head of the Department of Insurance, Lalo will lead the department in market conduct investigations of the ten largest property and casualty insurance companies in California. Investigations will seek to expose the exploitative nature of all internal claim procedures and any unfair competition or illegal coordination between insurance companies.

Each investigation will include a massive public outreach campaign to solicit stories, formal complaints, and first hand accounts from policyholders. Organizations representing policyholders and survivors of natural disasters will be tapped to help spearhead these efforts and will be included in every step of these investigations.

Countless survivors of the Eaton and Palisades fires have reported that their insurers have partially or fully denied their insurance claims and are refusing to pay for the actual costs for repairs or rebuilds. Survivors from other California wildfires have reported similar experiences. 

Insurance companies are violating California’s Insurance Code when they refuse to meet their obligation to restore damaged property to its previous condition. As Insurance Commissioner, Lalo would immediately issue insurance companies a cease and desist to end this behavior, vigorously investigate all complaints from fire survivors, and levy fines on insurers for every day that fire survivors have been denied full and fair compensation.

Nearly half of all Black households in Altadena were destroyed or severely damaged by the Eaton fire. From Hurricane Katrina to the Eaton fire, Black residents have disproportionately faced hurdles in rebuilding or repairing their homes and obtaining the compensation they deserve from the insurance industry. Altadena shows us that our fight to hold the insurance industry accountable is incomplete unless it is also a fight against racism. 

As Insurance Commissioner, Lalo will create a branch in the Department of Insurance tasked with rooting out systematic racism in the insurance industry and ending discrimination against Black policyholders and other oppressed groups. The staff of this branch will investigate cases of discrimination and racism in price setting, claim handling, policy cancellations, non-renewals, and risk reduction programs. This branch will propose new insurance regulations that strengthen the civil rights of policyholders and will refer egregious violations of policyholders civil rights to the states Attorney General for prosecution.

Essential and sometimes lifesaving coverage has been denied or delayed for millions of Americans due to the exploitative practices of insurance companies. In California, property insurance companies have expanded this profiteering by coordinating an industry-wide boycott of the state, illegally refusing to renew or write policies until they are allowed to raise rates however they please.  

As Insurance Commissioner, Lalo will criminalize this behavior and will co-sponsor legislation to put exploitative insurance executives behind bars. Any insurance company that continues to illegally boycott the state, claiming it can no longer afford to do business in California, will have its assets seized and used to fund a public insurance system.

Private insurance is a parasitic industry that charges people enormous amounts of money in exchange for a false sense of security. As climate change continues to exacerbate risk in California, insurance companies will protect their profits by restricting coverage, raising premiums, or leaving the state entirely. Millions of people will be left without insurance when they need it the most, unless we put the insurance industry's collective assets in the hands of the people. 

The seizure of insurance assets and the taxation of California's 194 billionaires would provide the necessary resources to create a public insurance system that puts people’s needs before profit. A public insurer would offer Californians affordable forms of property and casualty insurance through a state-run program.

Healthcare should be a right for all, not a commodity sold for profit. Every person regardless of immigration status, employment, identity or other marker should have access to free and comprehensive health care including preventative, reproductive, and gender affirming care. The current system of “healthcare for some” rather than free universal healthcare is an expensive drain on taxpayer dollars that ensures huge profits for health-industry corporations. 

The solution is for California to create a single payer system, such as Cal Care, that ensures health care for all.  A statewide single-payer system would guarantee health care for all by taxing the billionaire class and challenging the power of the private insurance industry. We must also defend pre-existing healthcare programs like Medi-Cal from the Trump administration's austerity measures.

While the FAIR plan was created to expand coverage across the state, there is no chance of it succeeding so long as it is run by the same insurance companies that make it so hard to obtain coverage in the first place. 

We need a complete reworking of the plan, a new structure which places the administration of the plan into the hands of policyholders and which paves the way for a public insurer that covers property and casualty claims.

Lalo will staff all branches of the Department of Insurance with working class leaders who have a proven track record of fighting for policyholders, consumers, and the victims of natural disasters like wildfires. 

Organizations who represent policyholders and survivors will be encouraged to join Lalo’s administration and participate in a taskforce responsible for producing new regulations for property and casualty insurers.  

A new branch of the Department of Insurance will be created to expand the participation of policyholders in the regulatory process. This department will be responsible for organizing the victims of the insurance industry and empowering them to hold insurance companies accountable and obtain full compensation.

California will not overcome its insurance crisis unless we take drastic action to stop climate change and prevent climate catastrophes. The economic and political system of Capitalism, has proven itself incapable of transitioning the economy away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy. Capitalism will always put profits over people's needs, even if it means risking the fate of the planet and all those living on it. 

We need elected officials at all levels of government to be fierce advocates of a new system where working class people are empowered to plan the economy according to the needs of the planet and people - we need Socialism.