New legislation announced Monday would require the California FAIR Plan to provide insurance for more than just fires — a potential major shift for the state’s insurer of last resort.
Over the course of California’s insurance crisis, the number of people with FAIR Plan policies has exploded, and the plan now covers more homes in the state than all but a handful of private insurance companies. In many of the most wildfire-prone parts of the state, the FAIR Plan has become the only option available.
The growth raises the stakes for private insurance companies, which are statutorily required to cover shortfalls if the FAIR Plan runs out of money. Following the Los Angeles County wildfires, private insurers had to collectively pay $1 billion to help pay FAIR Plan claims. Part of that cost is being passed on to policyholders of those private insurers.
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A typical FAIR Plan policy only offers coverage for one type of damage: fire. To cover claims such as water damage and liability, FAIR Plan policyholders must buy a second policy from a different insurer.
That would change under Assembly Bill 1680, also known as the Make It FAIR Act. The legislation would mandate that the FAIR Plan provide the same breadth of coverage as a normal home insurance policy, among several other reforms.
The bill taps a central tension within California’s insurance crisis: The state wants people to get off the FAIR Plan while also pursuing reforms to make the FAIR Plan a better option for the more than 646,800 households that have little alternative.
“Californians do not want to be non-renewed but if they are, we need to ensure comprehensive coverage is available,” the bill’s author, Assembly Member Lisa Calderon, D-Whittier, said in a statement. “Providing more stability and options at a time when the voluntary insurance market is still playing tug-of-war is needed now, in this moment.”
The FAIR Plan has resisted previous attempts to make it cover more than fire.
Though the FAIR Plan was created by the state, it is a privately-run entity with a board of directors populated by major insurance companies. In 2019, Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara first issued an order requiring the FAIR Plan to offer policyholders the option to sign up for the same types of coverage they’d typically be offered by a normal insurance company.
The FAIR Plan sued, challenging the commissioner’s authority to issue such a demand. In 2023, a Los Angeles County judge ruled in favor of the commissioner’s office. The FAIR Plan then appealed, and in December 2025, a California appeals court reversed the previous decision. The department has asked the state Supreme Court to review the decision, said spokesperson Gabriel Sanchez.
But AB1680 seeks to circumvent this battle by utilizing the authority of the legislature — which originally created the FAIR Plan — rather than the commissioner’s office. It is authored by Calderon, chair of the Assembly Insurance Committee, and sponsored by Lara. A spokesperson for the FAIR Plan declined to comment until the insurer had reviewed the legislation.
“insurance for more than just fires — a potential major shift for the state’s insurer of last resort…..” “A typical FAIR Plan policy only offers coverage for one type of damage: fire…..”
This is the Socialist/Communist plan. Slick refused to put in place years ago rational fire prevention by the State. The voters told him to do it. Make no mistake to create a “false” demand that the Radicals say we have to do something Sacramento has falsified what should have been reality.
You are so short sighted as to vote for stupidity.
But then again….swim in the pool of taxpayer theft.