Posts Tagged ‘California’

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Allstate Launches Identity Theft Coverage in California

September 2nd, 2011 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in auto insurance, insurance specialists

According to several sources, there are roughly nine million Americans who are victims of identity theft every year, resulting in millions of hours spent trying to resolve the issues associated with having your identity stolen.

As a measure of protection, Allstate Insurance Company is offering its customers in California coverage to help mitigate the expense of identity theft, and reduce the time spent recovering their identities, as well.

The program, which is referred to as “identity theft expenses coverage” went into affect in late August, and is available to new and renewing Allstate auto insurance policyholders in California. With a starting premium of $30/year, the coverage will give customers access to “professional identity restoration assistance.”

It also provides a maximum of $25,000 in reimbursement coverage for attorney fees, loan reapplication fees, credit fees, police report fees, lost wages, and any other reasonable expenses associated with the restoration of identity.

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California Assembly Approves Helmet Law…for Skiers.

July 19th, 2011 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in health insurance, insurance specialists

The California Assembly has passed a bill requiring that snowboarders and skiers under the age of 18 would be required to wear helmets while playing on the slopes. It was approved by a party-line vote of 49-23. Not surprisingly, Republican legislators referred to the bill as the latest example of “nanny state” laws.

Supporters of the bill, SB105, say raising awareness and requiring helmets could prevent head and brain injuries which are potentially life-ending in children as well as being expensive to treat, in turn making health insurance rates soar ever higher. Those caught on the slopes without protective head gear could be fined $25.

The bill was approved by the California Senate in April, but will vote on any amendments made by the Assembly before it goes to the governor for signature or veto.

There are four other states which have such laws on their books, and two others are considering them.

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Aetna Suspends Rate Hike in California

April 28th, 2011 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in health insurance, rate watch

Following in the footsteps of Anthem Blue Shield and PacifiCare, Aetna Inc. has become the third major health insurance company in California to announce that it was stepping back from its proposed rate increase there. Now, instead of roughly 43,000 Aetna policyholders being handed a rate hike of 17.9%, their insurance will go up only 12.2%. This decision came after the insurer agreed to postpone any increase to July 1, in response to a request from Dave Jones, the California Insurance Commissioner.

The reduced rate increase will likely save Aetna’s policy holders $6.7 million in premiums, and, according to Mr. Jones, the sixty-day delay added another $1 million to that savings.

Aetna isn’t reducing its rate increase without protest, however. The insurance company maintains that the rising cost of medical care is necessitating an increase in health insurance costs, and that a limit on the company’s ability to raise rates could be detrimental to its future. Addressing this in a statement, a representative of the company wrote, “Long term, our financial viability in the individual health insurance market in California could be impacted by the inability to implement rates which adequately address the rising cost of health care services in the state.”

Commissioner Jones also made a statement about Aetna, saying, “Aetna policyholders will benefit from Aetna’s decision to lower their proposed July 1 rate increase. Aetna has agreed to a reduction of their most recent increase, but Californians have experienced unsustainable health insurance increases year after year and they want me to have the authority to reject excessive rate increases. A.B. 52, which would give me that authority, passed out of the Assembly Health Committee this week.”

The announcement from Aetna represents the latest success in Jones’s push to expand the regulatory role of his office in the health insurance market.

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California Senators Introduce Earthquake Insurance Affordability Act

March 22nd, 2011 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in earthquake insurance

Last week, Democratic U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, both form California, introduced a new piece of legislation designed to reduce the cost of earthquake insurance for Californians and other individuals who buy earthquake insurance coverage from non-profit, state-run, earthquake insurance programs.

The legislation, dubbed the Earthquake Insurance Affordability Act, allows the California Earthquake Authority (CEA) and other non-profit insurance programs, access to federal loan guarantees in order to more efficiently and effectively capitalize for catastrophic earthquakes. Doing so would allow such programs to reduce the rates homeowners must pay, and empower more people to buy insurance in anticipation of the next major earthquake to strike California.

Senator Feinstein said, “The tragedy and devastation of the recent earthquake in Japan was a real wakeup call. “We cannot prevent an earthquake, but we must do everything we can to prepare for one by ensuring homeowners have access to affordable earthquake insurance coverage.”

“This legislation will allow homeowners to get back on their feet and recover more quickly in the event of a significant earthquake,” she continued.

Senator Boxer also spoke about the legislation, saying, she was, “…proud to join with Senator Feinstein to introduce legislation that would help homeowners in California access affordable earthquake insurance, which is critical to helping residents and communities recover and rebuild after the devastation of an earthquake.”

During the first five years the Act is in force, there is a potential savings of roughly half a billion dollars in reinsurance costs, which would be passed on to consumers as lower rates. The CEA could cut premiums by as much as 30% or reduce deductibles by as much as 50%, which would allow at least 700,000 additional California homeowners to afford earthquake insurance.

Even better, federal taxpayers won’t be footing the bill: the entire cost of the loan guarantees and the administration of the program will be covered by the participating state programs.

In addition, enacting the Earthquake Insurance Affordability Act, and increasing the number of people covered by earthquake insurance, will reduce the government’s cost of disaster recovery. This is because FEMA can’t may payments to people who have such coverage, which means every homeowner with earthquake insurance is one less that FEMA might have to supplement when a disaster-causing earthquake strikes.

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CA Insurance Commissioner Calls on Insurers to Invest in Community Development

February 22nd, 2011 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in business insurance, health insurance

Dave Jones, the California Insurance Commissioner, has offered the insurance industry $4.67 million worth of tax credits to invest in under-served communities.

In a letter he sent to the CEOs of insurance companies doing business in California, Jones encouraged insurers to place part of their $4 trillion in investments into COIN – the California Organization Investment Network, administered by the California Department of Insurance (CDI).

Every year, the DOI (Department of Insurance) allocates $2 million in tax credits to support community development investments in the amount of $10 million. Because this program has not been fully exploited in recent years, CDI’s COIN program currently has $4.67 million available tax credits to support $23.7 million in community development investments. There is a deadline of July 1, 2011 to place investments into the program; after that other investors also have access to the pool of tax credits.

Under the COIN program, insurers put at least $50,000 on deposit with a designated Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) for five years at zero percent interest. In exchange, the investor receives a state tax credit of 20% with an annual percentage rate of return of roughly 4.5 percent.

In turn, the CDFI’s then provide loans to non-profit organizations and small businesses that serve economically disadvantaged communities. The CDFIs serve as a bridge across the ever-expanding gap between loans and services available to those who are “economically mainstream” and those people and communities who are considered low-income. These loans help provide development services and technical assistance in these communities, as well as the money from the loans themselves.

These CDFIs include community development loan funds, credit unions, banks, microenterprise funds, corporation-based lenders and venture funds.

In a statement, Commissioner Jones said, “This is a critical program that benefits some of California’s most underserved communities, and so I want to encourage insurance companies to give back by investing in these communities. The state tax credit to encourage these investments has been underutilized in recent years, and it is long overdue that we get this program back on track. I call on all California insurers to examine their investment portfolios and invest in this program before June 30.”

Since 1997, 81 CDFIs have been certified by COIN as eligible for the tax credit program. Some of their investments in the past fourteen years include:

• A mortgage loan for a nonprofit residential alcohol treatment facility;

• Micro-loans of $500 to $5,000 to self-employed business owners;

• Loans for six childcare centers to serve 500 low-income children;

• Pre-development loans to Habitat for Humanity to construct affordable homes;

• A loan to a church to build a child care center for lower income residents;

• A loan for 953 water hook-ups in two small, rural communities; and

• A short-term loan to close escrow on housing for low-income foster youth.

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California Fault Lines go Online

February 14th, 2011 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in earthquake insurance

If you’re thinking about moving to (or within) California, and are curious about where your prospective dwelling is, in relation to fault lines, there’s good news for you. As long as you have Internet access you now have the ability to find out whether or not the place you want to live is on a fault.

The California Geological Survey has announced the posting of its fault zone maps to the ‘net for the first time. Until now the 547 maps were only available in paper or disc formats.

California state geologist John Parish explained that his agency uses Google Maps’ address-matching capabilities to link users to the right map for a specific property.

It’s already required by state law that home buyers be informed of whether or not the home they wish to purchase lies in an earthquake fault zone.

It should be noted that having this information on the net does not affect the need for earthquake insurance.

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California Insurance Commissioner Files Lawsuit to Prevent Iranian Investments

November 10th, 2010 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in insurance news, insurance specialists, world events

The Insurance Journal reported early this morning that Steve Poizner, California Insurance Commissioner, has stated that he is filing a lawsuit challenging last month’s decision from the California Office of Administrative Law (OAL) that his efforts to prevent insurance companies from investing in Iran constituted an “underground regulation.”

Poizner’s lawsut contests the OA’s analysis of this issue and also seeks to clarify his authority to address the issue at all. Attorney General Jerry Brown is representing the commissioner in the suit.

In a statement to the press, Poizner said, “I intend to ensure that any insurance company licensed in California is not doing business, in any way, with the Iranian regime. Insurance premium dollars that Californians pay should not end up supporting a regime that has shown time and time again its disregard for the concerns of the global community. The consensus is clear, as seen in the sanctions that the United Nations, the European Union, the U.S. government, and the California Legislature have imposed over the past two years — responsible businesses should not be doing business with Iran. Since companies doing business with Iran face financial risk, I have the authority to protect insurer portfolios from investments in those companies.”

The commissioner launched an initiative to identify Iran-related investments in insurers’ portfolios In June 2009, asking that the 1,300 insurance companies licensed in California identify all investments in companies doing business with the Iranian defense, energy and nuclear sectors. Fifty companies with ongoing business activities in Iran were identified by the Department of Insurance, and in the spring of this year, the commissioner requested a moratorium, beseeching insurance companies not to make any new investments in companies on the CDI list. More than 1,000 of them agreed to this.

Despite this, the Association of California Insurance Companies, the Association of California Life and Health Insurance Companies, the Personal Insurance Federation of California and the American Insurance Association grouped together to express their concerns with the law, and to file a petition with the OAL, because they believed the state insurance commissioner’s anti-Iranian investment rules constituted an “underground” regulation.

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