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Comment by hintymad

20 hours ago

> Residents who no longer have any insurers available can buy insurance from the state, but its far more expensive than the plans it rejected from private insurers

Sounds like a state-run racketeering business

No, it's likely running at a loss.

  • In fact, a huge loss, which it plans to subsidize by... billing any insurers remaining in the state.

    > As of last Friday, the FAIR Plan had just $377 million available to pay claims, according to the office of Senator Alex Padilla, Democrat of California. It’s not yet known how much in claims the plan will face but the total insured losses from the fires so far has been estimated at as much as $30 billion.

    > If the FAIR Plan doesn’t have enough money to pay all its claims, it can rely on something called reinsurance — effectively, insurance for insurers in case their losses exceed a certain amount.

    > Senator Padilla’s staff said the plan has $5.75 billion in reinsurance available.

    Notably, $5.75B is less than $30B.

    > If the FAIR Plan can’t make up its losses from reinsurance alone, it can demand money from California’s insurance companies to make up the difference.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/14/climate/californias-insur... / https://archive.is/Xg6s9

    California couldn't set up a more broken insurance market if it tried.

    • So many homeowners who lost everything will find out their California backed insurance is worthless. California will ask for a federal bailout?