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State Farm drops 72,000 policies in California over inflation, other issues — state official calls move a 'real crisis'



State Farm announced Wednesday that it plans to drop 72,000 insurance policies in California, citing inflation and several other issues.

According to a recent State Farm press release, the insurance company will either withdraw or not renew tens of thousands of policies "on a rolling basis over the next year, beginning on July 3, 2024." The decision will impact homeowners, business owners, commercial apartments, and residential community associations.

The insurance company stated that it is "working to ensure its long-term sustainability in California," noting that the non-renewals and withdrawals "represent just over 2% of State Farm General's policy count" in the state.

"This decision was not made lightly and only after careful analysis of State Farm General's financial health, which continues to be impacted by inflation, catastrophe exposure, reinsurance costs, and the limitations of working within decades-old insurance regulations," State Farm's press release read.

The company said, "It is necessary to take these actions now."

California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara responded Friday to State Farm's recent announcement.

"This is a real crisis," Lara told KABC's Eyewitness News. He stated that he would like to review the company's finances.

"Insurance companies are not like utility companies," he explained. "By law, they don't have to be here, and when we try to overregulate, we'll see what happened after the Northridge earthquake, when the legislature came in and tried to overregulate, and they no longer write earthquake insurance in California."

According to Lara, the current model insurance companies use to assess risk is "a black box."

"We're going to change that to be much more transparent," he declared. "We bring the risk down in these communities, we keep insurers writing, then you get more insurers writing, you bring down the cost."

Individuals whose policies are impacted by State Farm's latest announcement are encouraged to notify the California Department of Insurance.

"We will make sure we have an insurance expert with you so that we help you transition and connect you with insurance companies who are writing policies in California," Lara added.

Carmen Balber, with Consumer Watchdog, told KABC that the insurance provider's decision to cancel tens of thousands of policies demonstrates that Lara's "plan is not working."

"We have been urging for years now that California require insurance companies who want to sell home or auto insurance in California, sell to everyone who does the right thing and it protects their homes. We urge the insurance commissioner to support that policy change, which needs to go through the legislature," Balber stated.

In 2022, Allstate stopped providing home insurance policies to new California customers, citing increased wildfire risks and an uptick in construction costs, the Associated Press reported.

"The cost to insure new home customers in California is far higher than the price they would pay for policies due to wildfires, higher costs for repairing homes and higher reinsurance premium," Allstate stated at the time.


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Federal court rules Biden administration can't force Christian businesses to pay for employees' sex changes



A federal judge ruled Monday that the Biden administration cannot compel religious employers and health care providers to compromise their sincerely held religious convictions by paying for or performing sex-change medical interventions.

The background

In June 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in the case Bostock v. Clayton County, expanding the prohibition against sex discrimination in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include employment discrimination against individuals on the basis of their sexual preferences or transvestism.

Under President Joe Biden, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services subsequently interpreted the so-called Affordable Care Act and Title VII as requiring employer health insurance plans to cover elective sex-change procedures.

The Christian Employers Alliance, a religious business group, sued the EEOC, HHS, and various officials in the Biden administration in October 2021, stressing the two federal regulatory mandates exceeded the "government's statutory and constitutional authority."

"Many religious employers — including CEA and all its members — hold sincerely held religious beliefs that such gender transition surgeries and procedures are morally wrong," said the original complaint. "Providing these gender interventions contradicts their beliefs that God purposefully created humans as either a biological male or female and that a person's biological sex is immutable."

The CEA's complaint noted that neither the EEOC nor HHS provided religious exemptions from the mandates and that a failure to comply would expose its membership to heavy fines, burdensome litigation, possible criminal penalties, and other costs.

Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing the CEA requested that the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota prevent the Biden administration from imposing the mandates on the CEA.

The ruling

U.S. District Court Judge Daniel M. Traynor acknowledged in his Monday ruling that HHS' interpretation of Section 1557 of the ACA and the EEOC's interpretation of Title VII would require Christian businesses to provide "insurance coverage for gender-transition procedures that violates their sincerely held religious beliefs without satisfying strict scrutiny under the [Religious Freedom Restoration Act].

"Performing or providing health care coverage for gender transition services under the EEOC and HHS coverage mandates impinges upon CEA's beliefs," wrote Traynor. "CEA must either comply with the EEOC and HHS mandates by violating their sincerely held religious beliefs or else face harsh consequences."

He also found that the Biden administration had failed to demonstrate that it could not protect transvestites' rights in a manner that didn't infringe upon the Christian employers' religious liberty.

Accordingly, Traynor slapped both agencies with permanent injunctions, precluding them from imposing their respective interpretations on the CEA in a manner that would require the complainants to perform or pay for sex-change procedures.

The reaction

Shannon Royce, the president of the CEA, said the court's ruling was "a resounding victory for all present and future members of the Christian Employers Alliance."

"We are overjoyed our members will not have to choose between the biblically based employee benefits and quality health care they provide, and the threat of federal enforcement and massive costs for practicing their faith," added Royce.

Matt Bowman, senior counsel and director of regulatory practice at the Alliance Defending Freedom, similarly celebrated the ruling.

"All employers and healthcare providers, including those in the Christian Employers Alliance, have the constitutionally protected freedom to conduct their business and render treatment in a manner consistent with their deeply held religious beliefs," said Bowman. "The court was on firm ground to stop the administration from enforcing these unlawful mandates that disrespect people of faith."

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