The California Department of Insurance held an investigative hearing last week into the FAIR Plan, known as the state’s insurer of last resort. Despite adding farms to the plan’s commercial policies last year, getting approval is still not easy for growers and the coverage is limited.
“The recent wildfires in California have either driven away insurers or forced them to pick and choose who they cover,” explained Roger Isom, president and CEO of the Western Agricultural Processors Association, during the hearing.
California Farm Bureau Administrator Jim Houston proposed three fixes. When wildfire risks rule out private options, not enough insurance brokers are suggesting the plan to farmers and ranchers, he said. Houston also called for staffing up the association that administers the plan. And he wanted to raise coverage caps—which are currently set as low as $3 million—up to $20 million.
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Farm groups pressed for including home hardening measures in coverage assessments and hoped to set up a clearinghouse to move the plan’s commercial policies back into the admitted marketplace.
FAIR Plan President Victoria Roach pushed back on the investigation, arguing the plan should not be the only answer or serve as a convenient scapegoat for the insurance crisis. She charged the department with putting the plan in direct competition with the voluntary market, which could force insurers out of the market and exacerbate the crisis.
