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Mismanagement of California and your canceled insurance policy

April 11, 2024

Stacy Korsgaden

OPINION by STACY KORSGADEN

As policy holders are receiving cancellation notices in the mail, the insurance industry is struggling to survive. Industry leaders are grappling with massive fire losses, increased claims payout, inflation, and an actuarial system that did not account for state leaders releasing criminals and a government that would like to regulate and control.

It’s important for Californians to realize the insurance industry protects the American Dream. California’s prosperity is protected by insurance choice. Strength from the system comes when companies compete for business and offer exceptional service.

The state sees prosperity, too, when companies thrive through tax revenue. When we see what is happening through California’s Department of Insurance, we see a state straying from the principles of free market capitalism. If California continues down this road, the over regulation and state control will threaten the very foundation and economic stability the insurance industry provides.

The conflicting statements from the Department of Insurance show a department “concerned about overregulation, while simultaneously offering a strategy of new regulations, proves government overreach.

The Department of Insurance continues to ignore the perils, along with the propositions they should be working hard to reform: Proposition 103 (Insurance Regulation passed in 1988), Proposition 47 and 57, causing increased crime and criminals on the streets, and the overstep of environmentalism when dealing with forest management.

The current reality is concerning. The potential of insurance companies submitting to government support is destroying the very essence of free-market principles. This shift toward “corporate socialism,” similar to the health insurance industry, jeopardizes the industry’s integrity and its commitment to serving the customer.

The insurance industry is the foundation of a successful community. Families and businesses are protected against uncertainty. Only by insisting government manage the perils they have been ignoring for too long, rejecting government controls and regulation forced onto this vibrant industry, can we guarantee prosperity for future generations.

Stacy A Korsgaden, 35 year insurance and financial services professional. consumer advocate for insurance choice and customer protection. She can be reached at stacy@stacykorsgaden.com.

 


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A successful female business owner. Member of the LGBTQ community. Free market capitalist. Clear thinking. Common sense. Consumer focused. Wary of government meddling and over-regulation… as well as its failure to execute its most basic function… protecting its citizens in favor of cockamamie environmental idiocy. And yet… some on this thread just can’t help focusing on a protest in DC. Good grief. Get a life.


5

They were trying to murder the vice president

and the speaker of the house to steal a democratic election. That’s not a protest that’s treason


-11

You posted an absolute fact and people downvoted. How can they look in the mirror? She BRAGGED about advocating the overthrow of America’s government


-6

How about staying on point here… The Message …. That the State of California has buggered the insurance game here in the state. Yes , some actors in this insurance industry have done their share of mischief, but it doesn’t excuse the state for bad or unreasonable behavior either.

I interact with many industries here , and everyone has a horror story about the current wave of nutty regulation. Different state agencies from every corner ar rolling out more overreach seemingly to grow and galvanize government power. A government “ sustainability “ program.

You don’t have to look far to see it . Maybe your business or industry or your brothers or sisters….

Even people “ inside” government will complain about it off the record .

My feeling is that the State see the coming economic problems and is trying to position itself for the coming problems with funding. Already at a 73 billion and that’s not counting the 10s of billions they lost to fraud during the Covid payouts. That’s still off the books!

All you have these days is look at the condition of our roads and highways. Not much “ Consumer protection “ going on! LOL


22

Stacy thank you for this much-needed understanding of what’s happening in the insurance industry. Anybody who owns an apartment. anybody who rents an apartment is going to pay significantly more in rent and insurance at 2024, 2025. All of your admitted/large insurance companies like State Farm, Allstate, Farmers, etc. have left California anand anre no longer insuring apartments that are for rental. Landlords are going to have to go to non-admitted insurance companies with premiums double to triple of what they have been paying for a lot less coverage. Eventually either you cannot get insurance of any kind or the price of the insurance will be higher than you can afford. We must contact our insurance commissioners and our legislators regarding this as it it a government mismanagement issue. Rent is already beyond with the market can really bare and landlords are stretched very thin. Thank you Stacy for this much needed awareness.


26

Didn’t you take part in a protest that later led to a violent insurrection at our Capitol on January 6th?


Makes me hesitant to take your advice.


-85

Who are all these people who refuse to acknowledge that January 6 was an attempted insurrection? I don’t know what Ms. Korsgaden was doing there, but there were a lot of people there intent on overthrowing the government.


-35

She forgot to include in her bio she is a maga person, attended the insurrection to crush democracy. Wiping out government protections for the consumer is no way to run a railroad.


-85

I didn’t realize this publication was such a MAGA-rag. I can’t wait for these self-rightous, Fox “News” loving, entitled Boomers to just phase out.


-41

CCN isn’t a maga rag, but judging by the ratings many of the readers are.


-2

American Dream…. LMFAO….


-28

Why does this publication give a forum to someone who not only supported but attended the Jan 6th insurrection?


-82

Careful, you are hurting the MAGA crowd’s feelings.


-36

All attitudes are welcome here.


4

My homeowners insurance skyrocketed this year for all the reasons cited here: wildfires, the increase in property crimes, and local flooding. I wish there could be just a minimal coverage, perhaps catastrophic only, just like minimum coverage for car insurance.


66

So they follow your suggestion and allow basic policies. And you have another problem in your home….. for example your washing machine floods the house…. and you don’t have that coverage in your policy. Now What? You have money to replace all your flooring, dry wall, doors, furniture? ‘Someone I know had the basic car insurance and something unknown broke a window in their car….. NO INSURANCE, only cost $2,200+ .


-29

Both sides of this situation are at fault here. Poor forest management, possible over regulation and of course, the greed of insurance companies are all in play. Better forest management, holding corporations like PG&E responsible for the catastrophes they have caused, and expecting better from insurance companies are all in order.


However, I do not agree with Ms. Korsgaden’s claim that deregulation is the answer. IMHO, that has always been a disastrous move against the consumer and the environment. She herself has hit the nail on the head by mentioning the health industry. Before the health industry became a “for profit” endeavor, we had some of the best care on the planet, and it was stunningly more affordable. Now that it is less regulated, companies gouge us by astronomical times the amount it takes to see a profit and we have the worst health care system in the developed world. A little investigation into that claim will reveal to you that all the countries of the world that do have “socialized medicine” have vastly superior care for everyone at a fraction of our costs. She should probably not have mentioned that comparison.


If we ignore environmentalism, we are asking for even worse disaster scenarios, climate change being the very thing that precipitated this insurance crisis in the first place. And, just to be clear, “excellent service” went out the window decades ago. The only blame for that goes to rampant corporate greed, which is what is driving out of control inflation and the destruction of our systems in general.


Now they blame “environmentalism” and want “deregulation”? I think not.


-66

This woman definitely has an agenda. Increased flooding, tornadoes, hurricanes, and wildfires were by far the biggest losses for insurance carriers across the country. And she thinks the solution is to have less environmental regulation? That’s sort of how we got here in the first place.


Allstate made $1.5 billion in the 4th quarter of 2023. Liberty Mutual made $654 million in profit the 4th quarter or 2023. GEICO made $3.6 billion in profit in 2023.


Starting with the pandemic in 2020 the wealth of billionaires increased 88% over the next 4 years. $42 trillion in wealth was created during Covid, and 2/3 of it went to the wealthiest 1%.


There isn’t a regulatory issue. There isn’t an inflation issue. There is a corporate greed issue. Maybe that’s why Ms. Korsgaden wants there to be less regulation and scrutiny of their practices.


And I think Ms. Korsgaden is deliberatly conflating association with causation. She seizes upon something that regulators did and then blames it on the increase of insurance rates. If I eat a ham sandwich at lunch and then I fall and sprain my ankle in the afternoon, it doesn’t mean ham sandwiches cause sprained ankles. But then again, anyone who was at the January 6 insurrection because of “voter fraud” and continually loses elections herself may not be bright enough to actually understand the difference.


-72

So, like gas prices, it appears that the “corporate greed” is only extended to California?


28

Maybe the dumbest thing I have read, and that is saying a lot. I didn’t say anything about California. I specifically referenced hurricanes and tornadoes. Did you think I was talking about all the hurricanes and tornadoes in California? And do you think gas prices are only up in California, and that every other state’s gas prices have not gone up, and that it is just “inflation” it has nothing to do with oil company greed? Exxon’s proift in 2023 was $36 billion. Shell’s was $28.25 billion. Meanwhile, U.S. oil production rose again in 2023 and led the world in production for the 6th straight year, so it sure isn’t a supply issue. Turn off Fox “News” and do some actual thinking.


-21

Don’t you just love that you are being downvoted, but that nobody has anything to say to refute any of your points? I guess the right-wingers are upset that the facts are hurting their narrative again.


-36

WTF is this “Forrest management?” Please explain how to manage 33,000,000 acres. Just explain maybe a week of that. Let alone 30-4-50 years. (and who does it? and the cost)


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