The California Department of Insurance has announced a new plan that hopes to incentivize insurance companies to write more policies to cover Californians in high wildfire risk areas, but one consumer advocacy group is calling the plan "a scam."State Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara announced the plan on June 12. It comes as several insurance companies announced plans to stop writing policies in California.
SUGGESTED: State Farm dropping policies in these California ZIP codesJamie Court with Consumer Watchdog disagrees. He calls the plan "a complete giveaway to the insurance companies, and it's outrageous."Court takes issue with what's called catastrophe modeling, which allows insurance companies to use computerized historical and climate data to assess risk and determine their rates. Right now, companies can't use those models. Under Lara's plan, though, they can.