California pushes insurers to cover more homes in these areas. Is your ZIP included?

BY LEVI SUMAGAYSAY (CALMATTERS) – California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara unveiled today an effort to force insurers to resume writing policies in high-fire-risk areas — part of an overall plan to address the state’s insurance crisis. The Insurance Department proposed three different pathways for insurers to meet minimum requirements for writing policies in areas deemed “high risk” or “very high risk” by Cal Fire. Regulators said this hybrid approach takes into account the state’s complex geography as well as the different levels of risk big and small insurers can afford to assume. Lara said this should help homeowners who have lost coverage or been forced to turn to the last-resort FAIR Plan. Insurance companies will have these options: Write 85% of their statewide market share in high-risk areas. The department explains it this way: “If a company writes 20 out of 100 homes statewide, it must write 17 out of 100 homes in a distressed area.” Achieve one-time 5% growth in the number of policies they write in high-risk areas. Expand their number of policies 5% by taking people out of the FAIR Plan, which has been growing exponentially. The department also released a map that shows where wildfire risk...