Steve Hilton’s Plan to Lower Costs, Restore Coverage, and Bring Insurers Back

The Problem

California’s insurance market is breaking down, and homeowners are paying the price.

Across the state, people are losing coverage, facing sharp premium increases, or being pushed onto the FAIR Plan, where they pay more for less protection. What was designed as a last-resort safety net is now covering over 650,000 households. Not long ago, that number was closer to 100,000.

For many Californians, the situation is getting worse fast. Policies are being non-renewed. Coverage is becoming harder to find. And when it is available, it is often significantly more expensive.

This isn’t temporary. The system isn’t working.

Fewer insurers are willing to operate in California. That means less competition, fewer choices, and higher costs for homeowners. In some parts of the state, the private market is barely functioning at all.

Californians are being forced onto the unfair FAIR Plan, paying more for worse coverage, with no clear path out. The FAIR Plan was supposed to be a last resort. Today it’s a bad deal for hundreds of thousands of Californians.

The Policy Failures Behind California’s Insurance Crisis

This crisis is the result of years of failed policy decisions.

The insurance market has been made unworkable. Rate approvals that are supposed to follow a clear timeline under Proposition 103 now drag on for months or even years, creating constant uncertainty for insurers that need to price risk in real time.

When you make it impossible to operate, companies stop operating.

The legal environment adds to the problem. Litigation is increasingly prolonged and, in many cases, financed by hedge funds, turning lawsuits into profit-driven investments that raise costs and delay recovery.

Costs are also driven up from the ground level. Excessive regulation and permitting delays have made rebuilding far more expensive than it should be. As outlined in the housing plan, these policies have significantly increased construction costs across the state. Higher rebuilding costs mean higher insurance premiums.

Public safety failures make things worse. Rising property crime, including organized theft and catalytic converter theft, has driven up auto insurance claims and costs, which insurers pass on to consumers.

Taken together, these policies have created a market defined by high costs, high risk, and constant uncertainty. The result is fewer insurers, less competition, and higher prices for Californians.

Steve’s Plan

Fixing this starts with one thing: making the market work again. It starts with getting people off the unfair FAIR Plan and back into real insurance.

As governor, Steve will:

Stabilize the FAIR Plan and move people back to real coverage

Get low- and moderate-risk homeowners off the FAIR Plan and back into standard policies, restoring it to its original role as a last-resort safety net.

Enforce the law on rate approvals

Make the existing 60-day timeline under Proposition 103 a real requirement, ending delays and procedural abuse so insurers can operate with predictability.

Crack down on hedge fund-driven litigation abuse

Require transparency in third-party litigation financing and stop lawsuits from being used as profit-driven investments that raise costs and delay recovery.

Bring insurers back into California

Make California a place insurers can actually do business again by creating a stable, predictable environment for pricing risk.