Enforce minimum coverage standards

Too often, hidden gaps in coverage leave families with massive out-of-pocket costs after disasters. Jane Kim will enforce minimum coverage standards as a condition of rate approval, so insurers compete on price and service, not on how much protection they can quietly remove. Minimum standards would include:

• Guaranteed replacement cost for total losses: if your home is completely destroyed, your insurance should cover the cost to rebuild it

• Extended replacement cost: if the cost to rebuild after a disaster goes up with inflation, labor shortages, or materials costs, so should your coverage – by up to 50%

• Ordinance and law coverage: When you rebuild, you often have to meet newer building codes that didn’t exist when your home was built. Your insurance should cover these costs, up to 25% of your dwelling limit

• Require consent for reduced coverage: Insurers shouldn’t be able to reduce your coverage without your agreement — and showing you the cost of the eliminated coverage.

Require six months notice for changes in coverage

Currently, insurers are only required to provide 75 days notice before dropping your coverage or making major changes to your policy. But finding new coverage or making upgrades to make your home resilient to wildfires can take months, not weeks. Jane will require insurance companies to give you six months notice before non-renewing your policy or making material changes to your coverage, giving you real time to prepare.

Create a statewide coverage calculator

When an insurer underestimates the cost to rebuild, they save money and you’re left vulnerable. So you shouldn’t have to take their word for it. Jane will create a public tool to estimate rebuilding costs, so policyholders and agents can make sure coverage is adequate. And Jane will require that insurers report and justify how they calculate inflation – because prices shouldn’t be set in the dark.

End price discrimination for auto insurance

How much you pay for car insurance shouldn't depend on where you go to work or how much money you make. As Insurance Commissioner, Jane will close the loophole allowing insurers to charge higher rates to blue collar workers than white collar workers.

ANOTHER BIG idea:

Medicare for Kids

No child should be denied care and annual check ups because of their parent’s job or employment status.  But roughly 400,000 children lose their Medi-Cal coverage every year because of a slight increase in income, missed renewal form or paperwork. While the Department of Insurance does not oversee managed health care plans, Jane will write a plan to guarantee healthcare for every child in California: Medicare for Kids.

It’s affordable – Medicare for Kids would actually save money thanks to preventative care reducing long term care costs – and it's a moral responsibility.

Why doesn’t this office oversee managed healthcare?

In California, insurance regulation is divided between two departments: the Department of Insurance, and the Department of Managed Health Care. California is alone among states in having insurance bifurcated like this, and Jane believes insurance regulatory authority should be centralized within the Department of Insurance.