Senator Sasha Renée Pérez (D-Pasadena) issued the following statement on today’s announcement of enforcement action against State Farm by the California Department of Insurance:
“This administrative action against State Farm is long overdue, but it still falls short of ensuring real consequences. For more than a year, hundreds of Eaton Fire survivors have raised serious concerns about State Farm’s handling of their claims. When large insurers fail to meet their obligations to policy holders, real accountability is necessary. It has now been a full year since I called on the California Department of Insurance to conduct a Market Conduct Examination of State Farm and to delay any consideration of its request for an emergency rate increase. The findings of that examination validate what fire survivors have been saying all along.
“This is why it is deeply disappointing that the Department approved the rate increase without tying it to meaningful accountability. State Farm should face the maximum allowable fines, and this moment should send a clear message that California stands firmly in defense of fire survivors.
“The experiences of fire survivors directly led me to author SB 877 to better protect California policyholders, especially disaster victims, by requiring insurers to fully disclose all loss estimate documents to policyholders, and SB 878, a measure that imposes penalties on unjustified payment delays.”
