Insurance rate rule changes proposed

California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner proposed emergency changes Monday to regulations that help determine rates for auto and homeowner policies, saying the changes would “help speed lower insurance rates to consumers.”

The proposal would make changes to the formulas used to set rates.

These changes would require insurance companies to show premium trends over the last six years. Under the current regulation, they must show trends going back three years.

Deputy insurance commissioner Woody Girion said the data would enable the department to set rates more attuned to economic realities.

“We’re going to look at the entire set of data,” Girion said.

State insurance officials want to adopt the new rules on an emergency basis, Girion said, in part because of apparent industry confusion over the regulations.

But consumer advocate Harvey Rosenfield, who wrote the landmark Proposition 103 that led to a reduction of insurance rates, said the inclusion of additional data could give insurers more options in arguing for a rate hike.

The current rules “created a uniform and transparent system that insurance companies and the Department of Insurance staff could all understand and apply,” he said.

Rosenfield doubted that the staff could adequately examine the additional years of data.

“The department has barely enough staff to scrutinize the thousands of applications that insurance companies now file every year,” he said.

The emergency changes will need to be approved by the state Office of Administrative Law but do not require approval by the state Legislature.

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david.colker@latimes.com