It’s Getting Harder to Get Car Insurance; What Data Is Your Auto Collecting? Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: June 22, 2023

Indy Digest: June 22, 2023

Is California on the verge of an insurance crisis?

The short answer: No, it’s not. The state’s too big, with too many resources, for there to be a true crisis. But things are sure getting weird.

Jalopnik (a sister site of Deadspin, The A.V. Club, etc.), citing reporting from the San Francisco Chronicle, says:

First, companies like Progressive, Allstate and State Farm began declining home insurance in the state due to worries of natural disasters like wildfires. Now, as the San Francisco Chronicle reports, car insurance companies are declining coverage for drivers across the state. Mike D’Arelli, executive director of American Agents Alliance, noticed things starting to change at the end of 2022. …

LA-based insurance agent Laine Caspi noticed companies like Mercury and Progressive making weird insurance moves too, like not taking on as many new policies and in the instances that they do, coverage doesn’t start immediately. Some drivers are finding themselves in “review periods” that last up to a month before the actual coverage kicks in. And that even goes for drivers with clean records.

Here’s a link to that Chronicle piece..(I linked to the Jalopnik piece first because the Chronicle has a hard paywall.) An excerpt:

Inflation has caused many costs associated with auto accidents to go up, such as car parts and hospital bills, insurance agents said. More significantly, they pointed to the fact that insurance commissioner Lara didn’t approve any rate increases for auto insurers from May 2020 to October 2022 — which Progressive’s CEO cited in an earnings call last year as an explanation for slowing business in California. 

The rate moratorium was part of Lara’s efforts to compel insurers to compensate consumers he says were overcharged during the beginning of the pandemic, when many were not driving as much because of stay-at-home orders. 

Rex Frazier, president of Personal Insurance Federation of California, an advocacy association of personal injury and casualty insurers in the state, said the auto insurance market right now is the direct result of the rate moratorium. He said the commissioner should consider a “triage approach” to the rate requests currently awaiting approval. 

How is this all going to shake out? Stay tuned—but be prepared for insurance weirdness in the interim.

—Jimmy Boegle

More News

• It’s becoming more and more evident that some members of the U.S. Supreme Court think it’s a-OK to accept massive gifts from rich people who have business in front of the court. ProPublica broke the latest bit of news earlier this week. The lede: “In early July 2008, Samuel Alito stood on a riverbank in a remote corner of Alaska. The Supreme Court justice was on vacation at a luxury fishing lodge that charged more than $1,000 a day, and after catching a king salmon nearly the size of his leg, Alito posed for a picture. To his left, a man stood beaming: Paul Singer, a hedge fund billionaire who has repeatedly asked the Supreme Court to rule in his favor in high-stakes business disputes. Singer was more than a fellow angler. He flew Alito to Alaska on a private jet. If the justice chartered the plane himself, the cost could have exceeded $100,000 one way.”

• Well … ProPublica sort of broke the news. As that article goes on to say: “ProPublica sent Alito a list of detailed questions last week, and on Tuesday, the Supreme Court’s head spokeswoman told ProPublica that Alito would not be commenting. Several hours later, The Wall Street Journal published an op-ed by Alito responding to ProPublica’s questions about the trip.” Alito’s argument is, well … this one segment says it all: “On no occasion have (Paul Singer and I) discussed the activities of his businesses, and we have never talked about any case or issue before the Court. On two occasions, he introduced me before I gave a speech—as have dozens of other people. And as I will discuss, he allowed me to occupy what would have otherwise been an unoccupied seat on a private flight to Alaska. It was and is my judgment that these facts would not cause a reasonable and unbiased person to doubt my ability to decide the matters in question impartially.” The seat would have been unoccupied? So that makes it OK? WTF?

• There’s also the issue involving the WSJ publishing Alito’s comments before ProPublica’s story was posted, which is ethically tenuous and sleazy to boot. The Hill reports that the WSJ editorial board responded to such criticism with a big middle finger: “‘Justice Alito clearly wanted his defense to receive public disclosure in full, not edited piecemeal. We saw ProPublica’s list of 18 questions and had a good idea of where the reporters were going. The story proved us right,’ the Journal editorial board wrote in a separate piece published Thursday. ‘It is also hilarious to be denounced for betraying the media brotherhood for the offense of scooping the competition. This is the same crowd that would prefer if we didn’t exist. Their pearl-clutching reveals the degree of media conformity when it comes to approved progressive political targets like Justice Alito.’” Wow.

• Moving on … The Conversation reports on the moves the feds are making to hold airlines more accountable for flight delays and cancellations: “On May 8, 2023, the Biden administration proposed new rules that would require airlines to compensate passengers whose flights are canceled or significantly delayed because of causes—unlike bad weather— that are under the control of the airlines. Under the new rules, the airlines would need to offer meal vouchers, overnight accommodations and ground transportation to and from a hotel when customers are stranded. If enacted, those new rules would provide U.S. passengers with rights and protections more in line with those currently afforded passengers in the European Union and Canada.”

• Wired takes a look at some of the data newer cars are collecting on their owners … and it’s kind of alarming: “Over the past decade, vehicles have become increasingly connected and their ability to record data about us has shot up. Cars can track where you’re traveling to and from, record every press on the accelerator as well as your seatbelt settings, and gather biometric information about you. Some of this data is sold by the murky data-broker industry.” One example cited in the story: “Toyota can … collect your ‘driving behavior.’ This includes information such as your ‘acceleration and speed, steering, and braking functionality, and travel direction.’ It may also gather your in-vehicle preferences, favorite locations saved on its systems, and images gathered by external cameras or sensors.” Um …

• We have bad news for people with student-loan debit. CNBC reports: “Over the three-year-long pause on student loan payments, the U.S. Department of Education has repeatedly told borrowers their bills were set to resume, only to take it back and provide them more time. This time, however, the agency really means it. The Education Department posted on its website that ‘payments will be due starting in October,’ and a recent law passed by Congress will make changing that plan difficult. It will likely be a big adjustment for borrowers when the pandemic-era policy expires. Around 40 million Americans have debt from their education. The typical monthly bill is roughly $350.”

• And finally … here’s a story that will probably make your work situation look a LOT better in comparison. CNN reports: “A restaurant in California has been ordered to pay $140,000 in back wages and damages to employees after it hired a priest to extract workers’ confessions, in what federal investigators are calling ‘the most shameless’ acts of corruption an employer has taken against its staff. The U.S. Department of Labor said an employee testified that owner Che Garibaldi, who operates two locations of Taqueria Garibaldi in northern California, hired a fake priest to hear confessions during work hours and ‘get the sins out,’ including asking them if they had been late for work, stolen money from the restaurant or had ‘bad intentions’ toward their employer. ‘Under oath, an employee of Taqueria Garibaldi explained how the restaurant offered a supposed priest to hear their workplace “sins” while other employees reported that a manager falsely claimed that immigration issues would be raised by the department’s investigation,’ said Regional Solicitor of Labor Marc Pilotin in the release.” Wow.

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