California’s insurance system is at a crossroads. To restore a solvent, competitive marketplace while keeping rates fair and affordable, we must strike the right balance between protecting consumers and ensuring insurers can sustainably operate in the state. I wrote Proposition 4, the clean drinking water and fire prevention bond measure that voters overwhelmingly passed in 2024, to address the ever-increasing risk of climate-related disasters — especially fires — which have driven up costs for residents and led to insurers cutting back on coverage for Californians. This is just the first step to addressing this crisis. 

Priorities:

• Modernize rate-setting:
  Implement reforms allowing the use of wildfire catastrophe modeling and the inclusion of reinsurance costs in rate applications, aligning California with national standards and ensuring rates accurately reflect true climate risk. The Department of Insurance must use scientifically developed data and feedback to learn as it implements the Sustainable Insurance Strategy, building on its successes while also being prepared to pivot as we find more efficient and affordable solutions.
  
  

• Faster rate reviews:
  Streamline the Department of Insurance rate review timelines so decisions are made within months, not years, giving insurers the certainty they need to keep writing policies in California.
  
  

• Community hardening as rate stabilization:
  Continue expanding programs like Safer from Wildfires, the California Safe Homes grant program, and vegetation management programs to help residents lower risk—and therefore lower premiums. At the same time, hardening one home at a time simply won’t solve the problem. We must all work together to safeguard our communities and create resilient neighborhoods. I will work with the Legislature, the Governor, and local governments to design neighborhood-scale programs that reduce disaster risk, increase community resiliency, and bring down insurance rates. I will also work with insurers to harness the industry’s own financial strength to invest in the new solutions and technologies that can further drive down risk.
  
  

• Data-driven resilience:
  Strengthen coordination between CAL FIRE, insurers, local governments, and communities to develop and meet fire-risk reduction targets statewide. We need ambitious targets that we can hold leaders to and scientifically backed data and metrics to ensure we can evaluate our efforts and strategically invest in proven strategies. This is why I supported Senator Josh Becker's SB 326, which seeks to improve coordination and create a framework to facilitate long-term plans and effective investments.
  
  

• Reduce climate financial risk

  Some insurers’ investments and industrial underwriting have exposed them to greater climate-related financial risks than others, threatening both the industry and its Californian customers. I will restore past transparency programs that revealed insurers’ fossil fuel investments and require regular gold-standard stress testing to prevent insurers from underwriting or bankrolling risky fossil projects.

• Climate accountability:
  I support efforts to ensure fossil fuel companies bear appropriate financial responsibility for climate damages that are driving insurance costs up for everyone.