told the Chronicle<\/a> upon announcing her campaign in January. \u201cWe should take their threat very seriously, and that means we have to explore public options.\u201d<\/p>\nThough not directly in the Department of Insurance\u2019s purview, Kim also promised to pioneer a plan for guaranteed healthcare for Californian children, what she termed Medicare for Kids.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Her other proposed policies include expanding the number of investigations the department performs on insurance companies each year; expanding the state\u2019s nonprofit auto insurance program; and creating a public tool to help homeowners determine whether they may be underinsured.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Kim said she was unfazed\u00a0by the prospect of facing a fellow Democrat in November.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are running on a singular policy platform about really transforming an industry that is failing California and fighting to make this an affordable state. We\u2019re ready to take that same message, regardless of who comes in second place,\u201d she said Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
Allen looked likely to secure the second spot in November\u2019s election, securing 20.1% of the early vote.<\/p>\n
If elected, he would become the first insurance commissioner to have represented a community devastated by a major wildfire. The state senator\u00a0\u2014 whose district encompasses part of the Palisades Fire burn zone, where 6,800 structures were destroyed last January\u00a0\u2014 has authored a number of bills inspired by problems faced by Los Angeles County wildfire survivors.<\/p>\n
In 2025, he worked to successfully pass SB495, which required insurance companies to pay at least 60% of a policyholder\u2019s personal property insurance limit upfront if their home is destroyed during a declared state of emergency, rather than requiring an itemized list of belongings.<\/p>\n
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Allen is currently sponsoring legislation to require policyholders get up to three months\u2019 advance notice before losing coverage and give the Department of Insurance broader authority to penalize insurance companies who do not comply with recommended actions following state investigations.<\/p>\n
He was also the author of Proposition 4, the climate bond that voters approved in 2024, issuing $10 billion in bonds to fund projects that reduce and mitigate the impacts of climate risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith me, you get somebody who knows how the system works and has been around the block a few times here in Sacramento,\u201d Allen told the Chronicle in April. \u201cThe trick to effective work here is keeping your eyes on the prize, understanding what you\u2019re trying to get to and getting something strong through.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the interview, Allen touted his decade-long career in Sacramento, saying he had the political relationships and experience necessary to pass difficult reforms. His policy priorities include coordinating with localities to pursue wildfire mitigation efforts and managed retreat \u201cwhere appropriate\u201d to reduce risk and bring insurers back into the market. In response to complaints from fire survivors about the department\u2019s consumer services, Allen has pledged to expand staffing.<\/p>\n
Like Kim, he painted an expansive picture of the role of the insurance commissioner, seeing places for the office to intervene in everything from life insurance to pet insurance.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThere\u2019s an aspect of this job that\u2019s going to involve being a bit of an Energizer bunny, jumping from topic to topic and ensuring that the system is treating people well and that you\u2019re applying the same lens of making the system work well, focusing on consumers over and over again from product line to product line,\u201d Allen said.<\/p>\n
Whichever candidate prevails will take office right around the two-year mark of the devastating Eaton and Palisades wildfires in Los Angeles County, which set a record for the costliest wildfire event in global history.<\/p>\n
The challenges the new commissioner will face will be different from Lara. The drumbeat of insurance companies fleeing the state or pursuing rate increases of 30% or more has slowed; the growth of the California FAIR Plan, the state\u2019s insurer of last resort, has tapered off over the past year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yet there are still concerns about the financial stability of State Farm General Insurance Co., the state\u2019s market leader in home insurance by far. Legal proceedings into both State Farm and the FAIR Plan\u2019s handling of Los Angeles County wildfire claims are still ongoing, and new issues have emerged surrounding the danger of smoke contamination following fires.<\/p>\n
Hovering above all of it is the threat of climate change fueling stronger storms and longer droughts that lead to more wildfires, prompting questions about whether California\u2019s insurance market can survive at all.<\/p>\n
California\u2019s general election takes place Nov. 3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If former San Francisco city supervisor Jane Kim and state Sen. Ben Allen of Santa Monica finish atop…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[46132,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-344230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-insurance-commissioner","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}