Insurance Industry Claps Back at Kamala's Wildfire

We support our Publishers and Content Creators. You can view this story on their website by CLICKING HERE.

Trigger warning: the woman discussed in the article below came reasonably close to becoming the president-elect of the United States and could have been preparing for her inauguration on January 20. Food for thought.

Vice President Kamala Harris took aim at insurance companies during a press conference Thursday regarding the tragic, overwhelming wildfires in the Los Angeles region that broke out Tuesday, killing at least 10, destroying thousands of structures and displacing tens of thousands from their homes.

“Many insurance companies have canceled insurance for a lot of the families who have been affected and will be affected, which is only going to delay or place an added burden on their ability to recover.”

“I think that is an important point that must be raised,” she continued, “and hopefully there can be some way to address that issue, because these families — so many of them — otherwise will not have the resources to recover in any meaningful way, and many of them have lost everything.”

The implication from her statement is that some companies abandoned their obligations and canceled policies even as the devastation was unfolding.

KAMALA HARRIS: “Sadly, many insurance companies have canceled insurance for a lot of the families who have been affected and will be affected – which is only going to delay or place an added burden on their ability to recover…” pic.twitter.com/iFzuDK13a5

— HOT SPOT (@HotSpotHotSpot) January 10, 2025

Spokesfolks for the insurance industry are clapping back at the VP, though, and telling her that she’s ill-informed and is spreading misinformation:

David Sampson, president and CEO of the American Property Casualty Insurance Association (APCIA), told FOX Business, “It is false, wrong and dangerous to even insinuate that insurers are abandoning their customers, and it’s especially concerning coming from a former California statewide elected official who should know the law.”

He added, “Insurers are committed to protecting the safety of those affected and providing expedited relief to their policyholders for the covered losses.”

Sampson noted that California law prohibits insurers from canceling an insurance policy during its term, except for very limited exceptions, such as non-payment of premiums or fraud.

He added, “So the implication that people who have insurance coverage effective on January 7th are being canceled — just to leave that impression with people and to create that fear — is irresponsible, in my view.”

Fire Damage in LA Reaches Biblical Proportions—Is This What They Wanted? And Could It Be Their Demise? (VIP)

The reality that the failed Democrat presidential candidate forgot to mention is that the state is in the middle of an insurance crisis, largely self-inflicted. Between onerous regulations, an infamously hostile business climate, and the knowledge that the state is prone to natural disasters, some industry giants are just ditching the state altogether.

Even before this week’s wildfires hit, California was in the midst of an insurance crisis, with many residents unable to obtain homeowners insurance due to several carriers limiting their exposure in the state or pulling out completely in recent years because of heavy losses and the inability to adequately raise premiums or assess risk due to California’s regulations.

The state’s largest homeowners insurance carrier, State Farm, announced in March of last year that it would not renew some 72,000 home and apartment policies in the summer. The company cited inflation, regulatory costs and increasing risk of catastrophes for its decision and had previously stopped accepting new applications in the state.

One can’t help but wonder if some of their analysts weren’t aware that parts of LA and California were tinderboxes just waiting to explode—like they just did in the Pacific Palisades and Altadena—due to mismanagement of the water supply and brush clearance, and decided to get out while the getting out was good.

State Farm was hardly alone in their assessment:

Several other leading insurers, including All State, Farmers and USAA, have also in recent years curbed new policy applications in California as part of an effort to limit their exposure to policies that carry what they see as undue risk given what the state’s regulators have allowed them to charge policyholders. Similar reasons of escalating risk, high repair costs and rising reinsurance premiums have been cited in those decisions.

Now don’t get me wrong—I’m not an apologist for the insurance industry, and like with any business sector, there are abuses, and sometimes they make it very difficult to get your claim fairly settled. That being said, like with so many sectors, the insurance folks are abandoning California, and it’s long past time for “leaders” here to start figuring out how to solve the problem instead of just trashing them.