Eleven new laws enhance climate resilience, protect reproductive health, and increase consumer protection 

October 5, 2022 - SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara on Monday announced new protections for California consumers, including climate resilience, access to health, and anti-fraud protections resulting from the California Department of Insurance’s eleven sponsored bills signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom during the 2022 legislative session.

“Protecting consumers is my number one priority,” said Commissioner Lara. “As Insurance Commissioner, I am using every tool available to help achieve this goal. I am grateful to the many legislators and partners who partnered with me to champion these important issues and appreciate Governor Newsom’s signature on all of these bills in order to continue California’s longstanding history of protecting our most vulnerable consumers.”

As an experienced and effective lawmaker, Commissioner Lara has sponsored 39 bills that have been signed into law by the Governor since taking office in 2019 – including eleven this year. While the voter-approved Proposition 103 grants the Commissioner and the Department of Insurance with specific regulatory authorities, Commissioner Lara continues to see legislation as a critical way to continue creating and strengthening consumer protections.

These new laws include:

Enhancing Climate Resilience

• SB 852, authored by Senator Bill Dodd, authorizes the creation of Climate Resilience Districts statewide to helpcommunities mitigate risk in advance of a disaster and promote recovery, a recommendation from the Department’s first-ever climate insurance report that would improve access to insurance for all, so that we can better prepare ourselves from increasing climate change-related threats.CivicWell was also a co-sponsor to this measure.
  
  
• SB 1107, jointly authored by Assemblymembers Luz Rivas, Cristina Garcia, and Eduardo Garcia, directs the creation of a statewide extreme heat advance warning and ranking system based on climate and health impact information by the California Environmental Protection Agency, in coordination with the Department of Insurance and the Integrated Climate Adaption and Resiliency program. This would be the nation’s first-ever extreme heat wave ranking system.

Protecting Reproductive Rights and Health Insurance Coverage

• AB 2134, jointly authored by Assemblymembers Akilah Weber and Cristina Garcia, establishes the Reproductive Health Equity Program to provide grants to providers who offer reproductive and sexual health care free of cost to patients with low incomes and those who lack health care coverage for reproductive health services, including consumers who come to California from other states that have decreased access to abortion care services. The grants afforded under AB 2134 are in addition to $40 million appropriated in the enacted 2022-23 State Budget to help cover these important health care services. Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, NARAL Pro-Choice of California, Access Reproductive Justice, Essential Access Health, and the National Health Law Program were also co-sponsors to this measure.
  
  
• AB 2205, authored by Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo,requires health insurers and health plans offering coverage through Covered California to report annually to the Department of Insurance and the Department of Managed Health Care the total amount of abortion funds. This new law will require transparency and disclosure from health carriers to regulators regarding the amount of separate abortion premium payments that are being collected from policyholders and distributed as claims. As we consider options available for payment of abortion services, this new law will help regulators and policymakers identify available funds to support abortion patients in California. Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California and the National Health Law Program were also co-sponsors of this measure.  
  
  
• AB 2127, authored by Assembymember Miguel Santiago,is an important clean-up measure to Commissioner Lara’s sponsored “Parent Healthcare Act” last year, that would clarify and strengthen notice requirements for Medicare-eligible older adults who are seeking to be added as dependents to their adult child’s individual health insurance policy or health care service plan contract.
  
  
• AB 1823, authored by Assemblymember Isaac Bryan,aligns the definition of student blanket policies that are purchased by colleges and universities with the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA). This alignment is necessary to ensure state regulatory oversight and that consumer protections under the ACA are also applicable to these student health policies sold through a university or college to their enrolled students, including Dreamers and refugee students. 

Increasing Consumer Protections

• SB 1040, authored by Senator Susan Rubio, authorizes the Insurance Commissioner to order restitution from persons who sell insurance without the necessary license from the Department of Insurance, including “extended vehicle warranties” sold illegally through robocalls and misappropriation of consumers’ and businesses’ premiums, among other insurance scams.
  
  
• AB 2043, authored by Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer, requires all bail fugitive recovery agents, commonly known as “bounty hunters,” to be licensed by the Department of Insurance to ensure that appropriate education and training requirements are met prior to licensure and that all applicants successfully pass fingerprint-based background checks, obtain an appointment from a licensed bail agent or surety insurer, and maintain a minimum $1 million liability insurance policy so that harmed consumers have an avenue to collect damages. 
  
  
• SB 972,authored by Senator Lena Gonzalez, brings thousands of entrepreneurial sidewalk food vendors into a more equitable and well-regulated food economy by updating the Safe Sidewalk Vending Act, which Commissioner Lara authored in 2018 as a member of the California State Senate to end the criminalization of sidewalk vending. Inclusive Action for the City, Public Counsel, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, the Community Power Collective, and the Western Center on Law and Poverty – all part of the California Street Vendor Campaign – were also co-sponsors to this measure.
  
  
• SB 1242,authored by the Senate Committee on Insurance, bolsters anti-insurance fraud efforts essential to protecting consumers from unnecessary economic loss by further clarifying agent-broker anti-fraud education requirements as well as the process by which alleged fraud is reported to the Department of Insurance, in addition to other consumer protection proposals.
  
  
• AB 2568, authored by Assemblymember Ken Cooley, creates a ”safe harbor” by stating that an individual or firm providing insurance or related services to a state legal cannabis business does not commit a crime under California law solely for providing that insurance or related service. 

In addition to these and other consumer protection bills, Commissioner Lara strongly supported SB 1107, authored by Senator Bill Dodd. SB 1107 will increase California’s existing mandatory financial responsibility limits for auto insurance, better protecting people injured in accidents and those exposed to higher medical and vehicle repair bills.

Source: CA. Dept. of Insurance