California’s next insurance commissioner is proposing a major overhaul on how wildfire coverage works in the state. It’s one of several plans Jane Kim has for an office she has described as “under the radar” and “underleveraged.”
Kim, a former San Francisco supervisor and leader of a progressive political party, won with 54% of the vote, according to the latest election results from the California Secretary of State. Results will be certified by Dec. 11.
“The main mandate of the insurance commissioner’s office in California is to make insurance affordable, available and fair,” Kim told CBS LA following her win. “And that is what we intend to do every single day that we are in office.”
She enters the office, which she described as being a watchdog
for consumers, at a time where Californians face rising premiums, have turned to the state’s insurer of last resort to secure mortgages and have detailed publicly their fights with insurance companies for full and prompt payouts following the devasting wildfires in Los Angeles County.
Here’s a glimpse of some of her plans for insurance commissioner that could impact you, according to her campaign platform and previous public remarks.
Natural Disaster Insurance for All: An overhaul on wildfire coverage
Kim is proposing a nonprofit, publicly run program that covers wildfire risk for every existing home in the state, consequently shifting it out of a homeowner’s policy. So, private insurers would still be on the hook to cover risks like water damage or a house fire, while her proposed program takes on wildfires.
Insurers would still sell and bill wildfire coverage. However, the estimated billions of dollars Californians already pay for wildfire coverage would instead go into this program. Part of a homeowner’s wildfire premium would include a “small, capped share” that all California homeowners pay into to cover the “bad wildfire seasons” — one where “no single home, company, or neighborhood could absorb alone.”
“Coverage would be capped at a replacement cost set high enough to fully rebuild the typical California home,” according to the proposal. Homes that exceed the cap would need to shop for coverage in the private market to close the gap.
What’s key in this proposal is that this plan would take excess profit that would otherwise go to shareholders and executives and instead be invested back into communities for flood and fire proofing, Kim said in a debate in October.
Delayed claims will have consequences
Kim wants to require companies pay interest on delayed claims, describing the move as creating a financial “disincentive” for insurance companies.
She said she wants to make sure people get their total contents coverage loss — the portion of a person’s policy that covers furniture and other personal belongings in their home lost, for instance, in a fire — within 14 days.
“Ensuring that the insurance industry is holding up their end of the contractual obligation is one of the main authorities and role of this office,” she said.
In California, insurance companies are required to pay 60% of personal property, a.k.a. contents, coverage limits to policyholders who’ve experienced a total loss in a declared emergency without requiring them to submit a detailed inventory of it for at least 100 days, according to the insurance department. It’s capped at $350,000.
Proposals for accountability, transparency
Under Kim’s plan, Californians will have access to a public tool to estimate rebuilding costs so that “policyholders and agents can make sure coverage is adequate.”
She’ll also create an insurer performance dashboard so that people can see how companies handle claims to make an informed decision about who they’re choosing for their insurance.
According to Kim’s plans, she’ll use her position’s enforcement powers to make sure smoke claims aren’t denied or underpaid and require the California FAIR Plan, the state’s insurer of last resort, and publish quarterly reports on how such claims are resolved in wildfire disaster zones. The proposal comes in the wake of blazes like the Palisades and Eaton fires, where fire survivors have expressed doubt that their insurer will fully address toxins in their smoke-damaged homes.
What does a California Insurance Commissioner do?
The California Department of Insurance enforces insurance laws and oversees how insurers conduct business in the state. Under the commissioner — a position once appointed by the governor and now up to voters — the insurance department can address excessive insurance rates, oversee insurer solvency to pay claims, perform market conduct reviews of insurers, resolve consumer complaints and investigate insurance fraud, according to the department.
In 2025, the Public Policy Institute of California found that 60% of Californians are very concerned that home insurance will become more expensive due to climate change-related risks, with a similar percentage of Californians reporting they were very concerned about not being able to obtain home insurance at all due to such risks.
Paris Barraza is a reporter covering Los Angeles and Southern California for the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at pbarraza@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How California's new insurance official will tackle wildfires, claims
