Top U.S. insurance companies and associations say California is risking a crisis in the nation’s largest automobile insurance market by refusing to approve any rate increases for more than two years, since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
The companies already are cutting back and say they can’t continue operating at a loss while Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara delays rate cases filed by companies representing three-quarters of the California market. Allstate, Geico, Kemper, Liberty Mutual and State Farm all reported paying more in claims than they collected in California premiums in the first half of the year, though they were profitable as recently as last year.
