California insurance market ‘in chaos,’ says former insurance chief. Can the new chief fix it?

(CALMATTERS) – With more California homeowners just discovering their insurance policies are getting canceled — and hundreds of thousands of others stuck with a pricey option of last resort — state Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara’s efforts to fix the home insurance market can’t come quickly enough.Lara has introduced two main regulations, with more to come. The first, unveiled last month, aims to streamline rate reviews. State law gives the Insurance Department the power to approve or deny insurers’ requests to raise premiums. Insurance companies complain the process has been holding up the increases they seek as a result of what they say are increased costs due to rising climate-change risks and inflation.The second regulation will let insurers use catastrophe modeling — which combines historical data with projected risk and losses — along with other factors when setting their premiums. California is the last state to allow for catastrophe modeling.“We’re undertaking the state’s largest insurance reform,” Lara said during a press conference earlier this month. “We can no longer look solely to the past to guide us to the future.”He said catastrophe modeling will lead to “more reliable rates,” “greater insurance availability” and “safer communities,” because he said it would further...