April 25, 2025 • 30 mins
The John Kobylt Show Hour 1 (04/25) - CA State Assemblyman Carl DeMaio fills in for John. Carl highlights the insurance problem California residents are facing.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Can't f I am six forty. You're listening to the
John Cobel podcast on the iHeartRadio apps.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I am thrilled to have had this opportunity to sit
in for him because I did my own radio show
for eight years and I really enjoyed it because we
got to talk about all sorts of great topics, well
important topics, not great because usually it was bad news
about what the politicians had done to screw us. And
(00:27):
you know that can get your blood pressure really high.
I don't mean to upset you. I don't mean to
cause you to have a heart attack or a stroke.
So that's what I That's why I really focus on solutions.
It's not just about telling you what's going on and
why it's bad.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
You know it's bad. It's about laying.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Out a proactive way to fix the problems, whether it's
locally at city hall or cross our state with the
corrupt state government we have, with the idiot we have
as a governor, we always need to give people the
assignment how do you get changed to happen? Because ultimately
(01:14):
it can happen if enough of us work together. We
have a common plan, a righteous cause. If enough of
us work together, we can get it done despite the odds.
That's what we're form California. The organization I lead is
all about. That's what I'm trying to do in Sacramento
as a California state legislator. But I can't do this alone.
(01:35):
I liken myself to the conductor of a symphony. I
don't actually play an instrument. My job is to show
up with the sheet music, the plan, and make sure
that everyone picks an instrument that they're strongest with and
that we mix all that together in a wonderful symphony,
(01:55):
a wonderful sound. And so what I want you to
do is get off the sidelines, get into the fight.
And you can do that in two ways. First, and
I am going to get to our big topic today,
which is the insurance scam in California. Why are your
insurance rates so high? And how the politicians profit when
the insurance companies raise your rates?
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Did you know that?
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Did you know that California politicians profit when your insurance
rates go up? That's why they're not going to fix
the problem. We're going to get to that in just
a minute. But again, your assignment number one, go to
the website Reform California dot org and sign up be
part of this growing movement where we do at Reform
(02:39):
California five things. Number one, we're making the case to
Californians who are not getting the truth from the liberal
media as to what the problems are and why the
problems are the fault of your government. The politicians are
the ones that nine times out of ten can be
blamed for something bad happening in your community, in your
(03:02):
household budget. Nine times out of ten, they cost it.
Most people don't know that, though, why are the gas
prices so high? Well, Governor knews Some says it was
the oil and gas companies that caused it. No, it
was actually Gavin Newsom that caused the gas prices to
be high. And here's how and why. So first, as
we make the case. Second, we offer the solution, because
(03:24):
you can get people's blood pressure really high. But if
you don't offer a solution, then you just agitate, you
ruin their day without giving them any relief, any hope.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
So we have to offer solutions.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
We offer solutions in the form of not only policy
reforms ballot measures, but candidates that we recruit, train, endorse
mentor support in elections. Because the way you get things
done is you vote for a solution, either a ballot measure,
or you vote for a candidate for governor, for city council,
for school board, for you know, state legislature, whatever the position.
(04:01):
You need to have someone that's been vetted who's actually
going to stand their ground and be part of the solution.
That's what we do at Reform California. We do a
lot of recruitment of candidates up and down the state.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
So that's the second thing.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
First is make the case, Second offer the solution. Third,
recruit you into the movement. We're inviting you to be
a volunteer. Volunteers can post things on the Internet that
can help collect signatures on our ballot measures, the Voter
i D Initiative that we're doing, the taxpayer Protection Initiative
to stop the mileage tax, to protect proper team, the
(04:35):
ballot measures, and you know, the signature collection on that,
the voter guide that we put out. Getting you a
copy of the voter Guide so you can share it
with your friends and family. I don't have the money
to run TV ads, but I do have money to
send you a stack of door hangers, palm cards, and
you can distribute the Plan English voter Guide door to door.
(04:58):
I'll give you a list of people, actually, people that
likely agree with you, so you won't get into a
fight with them at the door. Heck, I wouldn't want
to send you to a member of Antifa. Okay, you
know one of your neighbors might be a member of Antifa.
If I tell you the knock on all your doors
in your neighborhood, you don't know what you're going to
get behind some of them. So no, I'm going to
(05:18):
send you to doors in your neighborhood of people who
are likely going to agree. They just need the voter Guide.
So that's where we recruit the movement. That's what volunteers do.
They collect signatures, they share things on social media, they
help with our events. They distribute the voter guide door
to door or at their church or at their place
of work. Very simple stuff. But most people don't even
(05:42):
know that they can volunteer. They don't even know that
they can get a voter guide, that they can get
a list of people in their neighborhood, that they can
do petitioning in front of stors. If you're willing to volunteer,
we need you Fourth, we turn out the votes we
target during elections.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Voters that like are going to agree with us, but.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
They don't vote. They've given up hope. The establishment loves
it when we give up hope. They want their lemmings
to keep showing up to vote that are benefiting from
the broken system or at least bamboozled by the broken system.
When people give up hope, they these politicians and special.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Interests they grin ear to ear.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
And so what I do is I give you a
list of people in your neighborhood of that are likely
to not vote but they agree with us, And I
give you the list.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
That you can go give them hope.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
And then fifth, raise the resources financial resources to do
the first four. So check it out. Reform California dot org.
You can sign up at the bottom of that website.
But also we are collecting signatures on the California Voter
ID And so if you want voter ID in California,
if you want a citizenship verification for people who register
(07:00):
to vote, then I need you to go online to
voter ID petition dot org, voter idpetition dot org and
sign the petition for voter ID.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Voter ID petition dot org. So those are your two assignments.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
If you want to be part of our movement, check
it out. Reform California dot org. That's our mothership, our
home base. All of our campaigns are up there, candidates, endorsements, news,
ways that you can volunteer and get involved, vents, Reform
California dot org. But if you want to do something immediately,
(07:34):
we need a million signatures on voter ID, go to
voter id petition dot org. So that's your assignment list.
We'll recap that throughout today's show. So let's talk about insurance.
I will venture to guess if you're a homeowner, your
insurance has done one of two things in the last
(07:55):
two years. Number one, it's gone up by forty percent
costwise in the last two years, probably eighteen percent and
twenty two percent. Those are the latest rounds of annual increases.
Or Number two, you got canceled in your insurance. You're
(08:17):
a commercial insurance company, whether it's State farm or All
State or Farmers said sorry, we're dropping your insurance. Your
home is too risky. And you're like looking around saying,
excuse me, my home is too risky. My home hasn't
changed in the last twenty years. What do you mean,
I'm too risky, So we're not going to cover insurance
(08:38):
anymore for you. Now you're going to go go get
insurance from the government. Oh, the government insurance program. It's
called the Fair Plan. Well, there ain't anything fair about
the Fair Plan. It's going to be three hundred percent
more expensive. Oh, I'm not joking you. If you can't
get commercial insurance in the state of California, rate goes
(09:00):
up by three hundred percent. Three hundred percent. And by
the way, it's crappy insurance. You don't even even get
full coverage, so you have to get a supplemental insurance policy.
People are there on the government insurance plan, the Fair Plan,
not only paying three hundred percent more, but they also
(09:22):
have to get supplemental insurance for an additional cost.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
It's insane. It's just insanity.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
So what I can tell you right now is if
you are a homeowner in California, if you're a member
of an HOA, your insurance has skyrocketed. And if you
were lucky, you were able to keep commercial insurance rather
than going into the government plan. And let me tell you,
it's going to only be worse more of you are
going to get canceled, more of you are going to
(09:50):
see double digit increases in your premium, and sadly, many
of you are going to get dropped and be forced
into the government plan at three hundred percent more. I'm
hearing from people who are retired on fixed income who
are telling me they are at risk of losing their
home because they cannot afford the insurance. One lady in
(10:13):
my district called me and I give you one example,
but it reflects so many others that are out there.
Her insurance went from twenty five hundred dollars a year
to nine thousand dollars a year. Some of my community
members are up to fifteen to eighteen thousand dollars a
year just for insurance now coming up. Even think the politicians,
(10:38):
with that amount of cost spiking and pain and suffering
of their constituents would start finding ways to lower the rates. No,
it's because the politicians profit financially in the state budget
from higher insurance rates coming up. I'll expose the grift
that they engage in and what we're doing to reform
(10:59):
the system them and save you money on your insurance.
It's all coming up as Carl Demio fills in for
John COBLT.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
You're listening to John Coblt on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
I'm Carl Demyo sitting in for John co Belt on KFI.
And if you want to ask me a question, if
you want to raise an issue that you want me
to respond to, we take the talkback submissions that we
get on the talkback feature on the iHeartRadio app, and
we're gonna pick the best ones. And I don't get
(11:33):
to hear these ahead of time. Producer Ray, director Eric,
they go through, they pick the ones, and you hear
them the same time I do. So fire away, go
to the talkback feature on the iHeartRadio app and ask
any question or raise any issue, and we'll get to
as many of your submissions as possible. Again, Carl Demio's
(11:54):
sitting in for John COBLT. We're talking about insurance. The
insurance crisis in California is real. It's painful. Your insurance
if your homeowner has gone up, if you're lucky by
forty percent so far, it's going to go up by
another Are you ready? It's going to go up by
another sixty to one hundred and twenty percent in the
next two to three years. So that is almost one
(12:17):
hundred percent, one hundred and fifty percent maybe two hundred
percent increase.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Over a period of three years, four years. For homeowners.
That is devastating. Now, that's if you're lucky.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
I know you're sitting there saying, wait, Carl, wait wait,
you said if I were one of the lucky ones,
I'd be up by two hundred percent over the period
of two or three or four years. Yep, you're one
of the lucky ones. Because if you're one of the
unlucky ones, you get canceled and your insurance is gone,
you get forced into the California Unfair Plan, and your
(12:50):
insurance goes up by three hundred percent all at once,
and then it continues to go up every year thereafter.
And that's why I've told you that we have homeowners
that are literally it's not just a budget buster for them.
It's not just pain in their household budget. For some homeowners,
it's devastating. They're not able to keep their home. People
(13:14):
who are retired on fixed income are being priced out
of their homes because of the insurance debacle. Now the
politicians are sitting there blaming the insurance companies.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
It's the insurance company's fault. They're just greedy. They're trying
to make money and be profiteers.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Insurance companies in California are leaving the state because they
can't make money. This nonsense that, oh, it's insurance companies
that are profit profiting and price gouging. No, they're leaving
the state. They're losing money, just like the oil refineries
are leaving the state. They've been losing money. It's the
(13:51):
politicians that have created a disaster in our insurance market
and increase the risk to you and me because of
their mismanagement of brush and fire risk. But they're not
going to change their bad policies because currently they have
you bamboozled into thinking it's the insurance company's fault. But
(14:13):
more importantly here it is the big reveal. The politicians
are profiting. They're financially benefiting on higher insurance rates.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Here's why. One of the biggest money.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Drivers and one of the biggest revenue streams of the
California state government budget is the California insurance tax, and
it is set as a gross receipts tax, which means
it's a flat percentage a percentage of every premium. The
state of California gets two point three percent of every
(14:52):
single dollar you have to pay in premiums and it
collects about three point six to four billion dollars a
year for the state budget. So guess what when your
insurance doubles. Guess what happens to the politician's revenue stream
in the state budget for insurance.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Taxes, it also doubles.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Do you understand why these politicians don't give a rats
rear end about your insurance rates going up? They smile
ear to ear because of what it means is next year.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
They get more money to waste.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
And no one in the media wants to report on this.
It's a scam, it is a grift, it is corruption.
Now politicians are saying the reason why the insurance is
so high is not only are the insurance companies profiteering
and price gouging you lie to you the politicians doing that, but.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
It's because of climate change. Climate change.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Again, they want you to blame yourself for climate change
because you drive a car, or you turn on the lights,
you travel in an airplane like AOC and Bernie Sanders,
by the way, and so climate change is not the
fault of the politicians. Climate change is your fault. It's
society's fault, so it's all of us to blame. Climate
(16:14):
change is not why we're having more fires. Climate change
is not why we have greater insurance rates, higher insurance rates. No, no, no,
Coming up, I will walk you through what is driving
higher costs for insurance, and I will walk through a
plan that Democrats just killed in Sacramento that I offered
(16:35):
to cap your insurance rates to no more than the
national average increase and saving you thousands of dollars thousands
of dollars a year. That's all coming up as we
look at what's the real cause of California's insurance crisis
and how we can fix it.
Speaker 4 (16:51):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI A
six forty.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
The insurance crisis and what it's costing homeowners in California.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
It is devastating them.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
We're talking about double digit rate increases every single year
if you're lucky, and three hundred percent give or take
increases all at once. If you get tossed off commercial
insurance and thrown onto the government plan, it's only going
to get worse. And the reason why the politicians aren't
fixing the problem is they're profiting off of higher insurance rates.
(17:24):
They get a gross receipts tax. It's one of the
biggest revenue streams to the California state budget. These drunken
sailor politicians don't want to give up the money that
they're getting by having insurance rates higher, and so they're
not going to do anything to lower the insurance rates.
Oh and by the way, they have a lying liberal
media covering up the scam and allowing them to basically
(17:48):
say it's profit in price gouging by insurance companies, which it's.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Not, and it's climate change.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Hell, everything is now blamed done on Donald Trump and
climate change. Those are the two things that Democrats fall
back to. You stubbed your toe, climate change, Your.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
Hair is thinning, climate change.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Any of their screw ups, and I want to use
a stronger word, any of their screw ups they blame
on climate change or Trump, and the media lets them
away with it, lets them get away with it. So
people say, well, Carl, if it's not climate change, if
it's not price gouging, why are the insurance rates skyrocketing,
(18:34):
Why are insurance companies in so much distress that they
then turn around saying we have to charge more. Well,
there are three drivers of the insurance crisis, and they
all are about government policy failures. Number one, there is
an actuarial model that sets your insurance rates. An actuarial
(18:59):
model a bunch of smart mathematicians get together and they
look at all the disasters. They look at all the fires,
the floods, the pipe bursts, any damage that happens to
the places that they ensure, and they have decades and
decades and decades of this data and that allows them
to predict how many of those things will happen next year. Okay,
(19:23):
so that number one is it's called the number of
incidents lost incidents, and they're.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Pretty good at predicting this.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
They multiply those lost incidents by the amount of money
they have to pay out to replace the damage, so
replacement costs. They then add profit and administration, and that
becomes the basis of your rates.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
Pretty simple.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Right. If they get one of those elements wrong, there's
a problem. So let's talk about losses. We actually haven't
had more losses in California in terms of loss incidents,
so it may seem like fires are completely out of control.
(20:14):
But fire damage is actually not the number one claim.
It's leaky pipe. What are you gonna say climate change
caused more pipes to burst? No, it hasn't. We do
not have a higher incidence incident of losses incidents. We
(20:39):
do have a higher payout of losses, and so the
payout is driven by something called construction inflation. Now, if
you have done any home renovation, or if you've had
to do a home repair in the last three, four
or five years since COVID, right, you probably have had
(20:59):
a heart tech when you got the bid back, because
any sort of home improvement, drywall paint, any sort.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Of electrical work.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Is much more expensive today than it was prior to COVID.
Why well, we've had massive inflation since COVID, We've had
disruption of supply chains that haven't yet recovered. The labor
market is a lot tighter, and so the replacement costs
(21:33):
of fixing damage from the same number of incidents has
gone much higher, and it actually exceeded what the mathematicians expected.
That created an environment of massive losses. So the first
thing that we're dealing with is inflation, and that again
I don't blame the market for inflation. I blame politicians
(21:56):
for inflation. The second thing that drives insurance are insurance
regulatory costs.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
That is that the government says.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
To insurance companies, you have to offer the following coverage,
whether the consumer wants the coverage or not. There are
all sorts of requirements and mandates that cost the insurance
companies money, and then they have to they have to
add it into your insurance policy because the government.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Says you have to do this. The government at the
same time says we're not going.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
To let you increase insurance rates, and so for the
last twenty years under Prop One O three, they've limited,
when necessary, the increases arbitrarily. So we have insurance regulations
that are not reflective of market reality. We also have
(22:56):
in regulations that tell insurance companies they have to force
fees coverage on people that may not even want that
type of coverage. They might want to save the money,
they might want to take some of that risk, but
California doesn't allow that. Third, in California, we actually have
(23:18):
created not more fires because of climate change, but the
severity of fires is much greater because we haven't done
proper forest management. So the number of fires, the Democrats
like to say, well, because of climate change, we have
more fires. That's not true, none of the data, none
of the science. We have actually not had more fires
(23:40):
in society. We've had more severe fires because they burn
with more intensity.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Now, now, why might that be climate change? Now? No, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
You know, climate change has not caused trees to die.
Climate change is not caused brush to grow. That just happens.
And if you don't properly maintain your forest, if you
don't thin your forests, if you don't allow logging, if
you don't trim the brush in the canyons the backcountry,
(24:19):
all of that builds up over time so that when
a fire does happen, and guess what, it's a natural
part of our ecosystem. Fires happen. Don't blame climate change.
It's called mother nature. She's been doing it for millions
of years. It's a healthy ecosystem. When we have a fire, air, wind, water, fire,
(24:40):
these are all natural elements, natural occurrences.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
But if you don't maintain your.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Ecosystem, then you're going to have major, major catastrophic fires
that you can't control anymore. So fire management, brush management,
forest management, whatever you want to call it. We've not
done proper trimming of the shrubs. And that's government's responsibility
(25:07):
because you've got millions of acres of land held by government.
Think about La, all the canyons. That's not the federal government.
The Forest Service doesn't do that, Department of Interior doesn't
do that. That's the city and County of LA that
(25:27):
manage all of those canyons, all that brush. Then you
have state parks and you have federal parks. Government has
not managed and maintained the brush. Not only they do
not allow logging or forest thinning because the enviros don't
(25:49):
want it.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
They don't even trim.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
And of course, let's be very clear, they're not allowing
private homeowners to trim because all the environmental regulations say, well,
you're not allowed to trim because there might be fairy
shrimp there, there might be some spotted out. And so
people who want to protect their property and do the
right thing and put the money into hiring landscapers that
(26:14):
come in and clear the brush, they're told no, or
they're worse, they're fined. So coming up, I'm gonna give
you proof positive of this and it's happening in La
and you can see it. You can go hike and
you can see it up close and personal for yourself.
Where government is the bad neighbor down the street creating
a whole risk to the whole neighborhood. And why we
(26:35):
should hold local government officials and state government officials accountable
for them increasing the fire risk in California. Plus what
can we do about it. We've got a bill to
fix the problem and lower your rates. It's all coming
up as Carl Demyo me sits in for John coblt.
Speaker 4 (26:51):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI Am
six forty.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Coming up at two o'clock. How do we really take
back California when the Democrats have money and the media
a special interest control their corrupt system.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
Well, it's actually easier than you may think.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
And in twenty twenty six, I think it's going to
start really happening. We already saw a good shift in
twenty four. But that's coming up at two o'clock. We're
getting the details of that. But plus any questions you
might have for me, any issues you want me to tackle,
We're gonna take a lot of these in the next
two hours. Use the talkback feature on the iHeartRadio app
to ask any question and we will get through the
(27:34):
good ones and try to stump me.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
I'm game.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
We're talking about insurance. Insurance rates are skyrocketing. Homeowners are hurting.
This is a massive budget buster in the household budget.
This is causing people to lose their homes, literally lose
their homes because they're being priced out of their home
because they can't afford the insurance anymore. We're talking about
if you're lucky, sixty seventy percent increases, one hundred percent increases,
(28:01):
if you're lucky, three hundred four hundred percent increases. If
you get shoved onto the government plan. The politicians claim
it's climate change and price gouging, but they're lying. They're lying,
it's them. They've created the problem. Number One, through Biden inflation,
construction costs are way up, so when insurance companies have
(28:22):
to do replacement under your insurance policy, costs of.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
More, so they are now needing to recoup that with
higher rates.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Number two, the insurance market is way over regulated in California,
too much red tape. The costs are staggering, so we
have to reform the insurance market to allow them to
offer products that homeowners actually want. Let homeowners pick and
choose what coverage they have rather than having all these mandates.
(28:51):
And three, the government has been that lousy neighbor that's
allowed their brush to be complete overgrown, and that's made
a risk to the entire neighborhood.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
It's time that we go to the.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Government and say we are sick and tired of you
being a lousy neighbor. Clean up your crap, thin the forests,
trim the trees. I offered a bill to do just this.
It also protected you from rate increases. It was It's
(29:27):
an Assembly Bill five six seven, the Cup, the Cut
and Cap Insurance Reform Act. It basically said that the
homeowners would only be responsible for rates that are in
line with the national average, not a penny more, and
(29:48):
that if the rates had to go higher because of
the insurance company's higher costs, because of regulation or mismanaged forest,
the government would have to fill in. Yes, that we
would take it from the government budget. The first thing
we do is suspend that insurance tax that allows them
to gain whenever your rates go up. Second, implement the
(30:08):
deregulation and third do a bunch of trimming of forests
and brush around the state.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
They killed the bill. But coming up, I.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Want to share with you an example from local government
here in southern California as why we need to go
to city hall to demand action because these fires are
going to keep happening and a lot of it can
be traced back to negligence by local governments. All that
coming up, the insurance crisis. Carl to myo filling in
for John cole Belt, but first news with Deborah Mark
(30:39):
in the twenty four hour Newsroom at KFI.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Hey, you've been listening to the John Cobalt Show podcast.
You can always hear the show live on KFI Am
six forty from one to four pm every Monday through Friday,
and of course anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
Can't f I am six forty. You're listening to the
John Cobel podcast on the iHeartRadio apps.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I am thrilled to have had this opportunity to sit
in for him because I did my own radio show
for eight years and I really enjoyed it because we
got to talk about all sorts of great topics, well
important topics, not great because usually it was bad news
about what the politicians had done to screw us. And
(00:27):
you know that can get your blood pressure really high.
I don't mean to upset you. I don't mean to
cause you to have a heart attack or a stroke.
So that's what I That's why I really focus on solutions.
It's not just about telling you what's going on and
why it's bad.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
You know it's bad. It's about laying.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Out a proactive way to fix the problems, whether it's
locally at city hall or cross our state with the
corrupt state government we have, with the idiot we have
as a governor, we always need to give people the
assignment how do you get changed to happen? Because ultimately
(01:14):
it can happen if enough of us work together. We
have a common plan, a righteous cause. If enough of
us work together, we can get it done despite the odds.
That's what we're form California. The organization I lead is
all about. That's what I'm trying to do in Sacramento
as a California state legislator. But I can't do this alone.
(01:35):
I liken myself to the conductor of a symphony. I
don't actually play an instrument. My job is to show
up with the sheet music, the plan, and make sure
that everyone picks an instrument that they're strongest with and
that we mix all that together in a wonderful symphony,
(01:55):
a wonderful sound. And so what I want you to
do is get off the sidelines, get into the fight.
And you can do that in two ways. First, and
I am going to get to our big topic today,
which is the insurance scam in California. Why are your
insurance rates so high? And how the politicians profit when
the insurance companies raise your rates?
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Did you know that?
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Did you know that California politicians profit when your insurance
rates go up? That's why they're not going to fix
the problem. We're going to get to that in just
a minute. But again, your assignment number one, go to
the website Reform California dot org and sign up be
part of this growing movement where we do at Reform
(02:39):
California five things. Number one, we're making the case to
Californians who are not getting the truth from the liberal
media as to what the problems are and why the
problems are the fault of your government. The politicians are
the ones that nine times out of ten can be
blamed for something bad happening in your community, in your
(03:02):
household budget. Nine times out of ten, they cost it.
Most people don't know that, though, why are the gas
prices so high? Well, Governor knews Some says it was
the oil and gas companies that caused it. No, it
was actually Gavin Newsom that caused the gas prices to
be high. And here's how and why. So first, as
we make the case. Second, we offer the solution, because
(03:24):
you can get people's blood pressure really high. But if
you don't offer a solution, then you just agitate, you
ruin their day without giving them any relief, any hope.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
So we have to offer solutions.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
We offer solutions in the form of not only policy
reforms ballot measures, but candidates that we recruit, train, endorse
mentor support in elections. Because the way you get things
done is you vote for a solution, either a ballot measure,
or you vote for a candidate for governor, for city council,
for school board, for you know, state legislature, whatever the position.
(04:01):
You need to have someone that's been vetted who's actually
going to stand their ground and be part of the solution.
That's what we do at Reform California. We do a
lot of recruitment of candidates up and down the state.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
So that's the second thing.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
First is make the case, Second offer the solution. Third,
recruit you into the movement. We're inviting you to be
a volunteer. Volunteers can post things on the Internet that
can help collect signatures on our ballot measures, the Voter
i D Initiative that we're doing, the taxpayer Protection Initiative
to stop the mileage tax, to protect proper team, the
(04:35):
ballot measures, and you know, the signature collection on that,
the voter guide that we put out. Getting you a
copy of the voter Guide so you can share it
with your friends and family. I don't have the money
to run TV ads, but I do have money to
send you a stack of door hangers, palm cards, and
you can distribute the Plan English voter Guide door to door.
(04:58):
I'll give you a list of people, actually, people that
likely agree with you, so you won't get into a
fight with them at the door. Heck, I wouldn't want
to send you to a member of Antifa. Okay, you
know one of your neighbors might be a member of Antifa.
If I tell you the knock on all your doors
in your neighborhood, you don't know what you're going to
get behind some of them. So no, I'm going to
(05:18):
send you to doors in your neighborhood of people who
are likely going to agree. They just need the voter Guide.
So that's where we recruit the movement. That's what volunteers do.
They collect signatures, they share things on social media, they
help with our events. They distribute the voter guide door
to door or at their church or at their place
of work. Very simple stuff. But most people don't even
(05:42):
know that they can volunteer. They don't even know that
they can get a voter guide, that they can get
a list of people in their neighborhood, that they can
do petitioning in front of stors. If you're willing to volunteer,
we need you Fourth, we turn out the votes we
target during elections.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Voters that like are going to agree with us, but.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
They don't vote. They've given up hope. The establishment loves
it when we give up hope. They want their lemmings
to keep showing up to vote that are benefiting from
the broken system or at least bamboozled by the broken system.
When people give up hope, they these politicians and special.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Interests they grin ear to ear.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
And so what I do is I give you a
list of people in your neighborhood of that are likely
to not vote but they agree with us, And I
give you the list.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
That you can go give them hope.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
And then fifth, raise the resources financial resources to do
the first four. So check it out. Reform California dot org.
You can sign up at the bottom of that website.
But also we are collecting signatures on the California Voter
ID And so if you want voter ID in California,
if you want a citizenship verification for people who register
(07:00):
to vote, then I need you to go online to
voter ID petition dot org, voter idpetition dot org and
sign the petition for voter ID.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Voter ID petition dot org. So those are your two assignments.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
If you want to be part of our movement, check
it out. Reform California dot org. That's our mothership, our
home base. All of our campaigns are up there, candidates, endorsements, news,
ways that you can volunteer and get involved, vents, Reform
California dot org. But if you want to do something immediately,
(07:34):
we need a million signatures on voter ID, go to
voter id petition dot org. So that's your assignment list.
We'll recap that throughout today's show. So let's talk about insurance.
I will venture to guess if you're a homeowner, your
insurance has done one of two things in the last
(07:55):
two years. Number one, it's gone up by forty percent
costwise in the last two years, probably eighteen percent and
twenty two percent. Those are the latest rounds of annual increases.
Or Number two, you got canceled in your insurance. You're
(08:17):
a commercial insurance company, whether it's State farm or All
State or Farmers said sorry, we're dropping your insurance. Your
home is too risky. And you're like looking around saying,
excuse me, my home is too risky. My home hasn't
changed in the last twenty years. What do you mean,
I'm too risky, So we're not going to cover insurance
(08:38):
anymore for you. Now you're going to go go get
insurance from the government. Oh, the government insurance program. It's
called the Fair Plan. Well, there ain't anything fair about
the Fair Plan. It's going to be three hundred percent
more expensive. Oh, I'm not joking you. If you can't
get commercial insurance in the state of California, rate goes
(09:00):
up by three hundred percent. Three hundred percent. And by
the way, it's crappy insurance. You don't even even get
full coverage, so you have to get a supplemental insurance policy.
People are there on the government insurance plan, the Fair Plan,
not only paying three hundred percent more, but they also
(09:22):
have to get supplemental insurance for an additional cost.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
It's insane. It's just insanity.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
So what I can tell you right now is if
you are a homeowner in California, if you're a member
of an HOA, your insurance has skyrocketed. And if you
were lucky, you were able to keep commercial insurance rather
than going into the government plan. And let me tell you,
it's going to only be worse more of you are
going to get canceled, more of you are going to
(09:50):
see double digit increases in your premium, and sadly, many
of you are going to get dropped and be forced
into the government plan at three hundred percent more. I'm
hearing from people who are retired on fixed income who
are telling me they are at risk of losing their
home because they cannot afford the insurance. One lady in
(10:13):
my district called me and I give you one example,
but it reflects so many others that are out there.
Her insurance went from twenty five hundred dollars a year
to nine thousand dollars a year. Some of my community
members are up to fifteen to eighteen thousand dollars a
year just for insurance now coming up. Even think the politicians,
(10:38):
with that amount of cost spiking and pain and suffering
of their constituents would start finding ways to lower the rates. No,
it's because the politicians profit financially in the state budget
from higher insurance rates coming up. I'll expose the grift
that they engage in and what we're doing to reform
(10:59):
the system them and save you money on your insurance.
It's all coming up as Carl Demio fills in for
John COBLT.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
You're listening to John Coblt on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
I'm Carl Demyo sitting in for John co Belt on KFI.
And if you want to ask me a question, if
you want to raise an issue that you want me
to respond to, we take the talkback submissions that we
get on the talkback feature on the iHeartRadio app, and
we're gonna pick the best ones. And I don't get
(11:33):
to hear these ahead of time. Producer Ray, director Eric,
they go through, they pick the ones, and you hear
them the same time I do. So fire away, go
to the talkback feature on the iHeartRadio app and ask
any question or raise any issue, and we'll get to
as many of your submissions as possible. Again, Carl Demio's
(11:54):
sitting in for John COBLT. We're talking about insurance. The
insurance crisis in California is real. It's painful. Your insurance
if your homeowner has gone up, if you're lucky by
forty percent so far, it's going to go up by
another Are you ready? It's going to go up by
another sixty to one hundred and twenty percent in the
next two to three years. So that is almost one
(12:17):
hundred percent, one hundred and fifty percent maybe two hundred
percent increase.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Over a period of three years, four years. For homeowners.
That is devastating. Now, that's if you're lucky.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
I know you're sitting there saying, wait, Carl, wait wait,
you said if I were one of the lucky ones,
I'd be up by two hundred percent over the period
of two or three or four years. Yep, you're one
of the lucky ones. Because if you're one of the
unlucky ones, you get canceled and your insurance is gone,
you get forced into the California Unfair Plan, and your
(12:50):
insurance goes up by three hundred percent all at once,
and then it continues to go up every year thereafter.
And that's why I've told you that we have homeowners
that are literally it's not just a budget buster for them.
It's not just pain in their household budget. For some homeowners,
it's devastating. They're not able to keep their home. People
(13:14):
who are retired on fixed income are being priced out
of their homes because of the insurance debacle. Now the
politicians are sitting there blaming the insurance companies.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
It's the insurance company's fault. They're just greedy. They're trying
to make money and be profiteers.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Insurance companies in California are leaving the state because they
can't make money. This nonsense that, oh, it's insurance companies
that are profit profiting and price gouging. No, they're leaving
the state. They're losing money, just like the oil refineries
are leaving the state. They've been losing money. It's the
(13:51):
politicians that have created a disaster in our insurance market
and increase the risk to you and me because of
their mismanagement of brush and fire risk. But they're not
going to change their bad policies because currently they have
you bamboozled into thinking it's the insurance company's fault. But
(14:13):
more importantly here it is the big reveal. The politicians
are profiting. They're financially benefiting on higher insurance rates.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Here's why. One of the biggest money.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Drivers and one of the biggest revenue streams of the
California state government budget is the California insurance tax, and
it is set as a gross receipts tax, which means
it's a flat percentage a percentage of every premium. The
state of California gets two point three percent of every
(14:52):
single dollar you have to pay in premiums and it
collects about three point six to four billion dollars a
year for the state budget. So guess what when your
insurance doubles. Guess what happens to the politician's revenue stream
in the state budget for insurance.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Taxes, it also doubles.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Do you understand why these politicians don't give a rats
rear end about your insurance rates going up? They smile
ear to ear because of what it means is next year.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
They get more money to waste.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
And no one in the media wants to report on this.
It's a scam, it is a grift, it is corruption.
Now politicians are saying the reason why the insurance is
so high is not only are the insurance companies profiteering
and price gouging you lie to you the politicians doing that, but.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
It's because of climate change. Climate change.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Again, they want you to blame yourself for climate change
because you drive a car, or you turn on the lights,
you travel in an airplane like AOC and Bernie Sanders,
by the way, and so climate change is not the
fault of the politicians. Climate change is your fault. It's
society's fault, so it's all of us to blame. Climate
(16:14):
change is not why we're having more fires. Climate change
is not why we have greater insurance rates, higher insurance rates. No, no, no,
Coming up, I will walk you through what is driving
higher costs for insurance, and I will walk through a
plan that Democrats just killed in Sacramento that I offered
(16:35):
to cap your insurance rates to no more than the
national average increase and saving you thousands of dollars thousands
of dollars a year. That's all coming up as we
look at what's the real cause of California's insurance crisis
and how we can fix it.
Speaker 4 (16:51):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI A
six forty.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
The insurance crisis and what it's costing homeowners in California.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
It is devastating them.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
We're talking about double digit rate increases every single year
if you're lucky, and three hundred percent give or take
increases all at once. If you get tossed off commercial
insurance and thrown onto the government plan, it's only going
to get worse. And the reason why the politicians aren't
fixing the problem is they're profiting off of higher insurance rates.
(17:24):
They get a gross receipts tax. It's one of the
biggest revenue streams to the California state budget. These drunken
sailor politicians don't want to give up the money that
they're getting by having insurance rates higher, and so they're
not going to do anything to lower the insurance rates.
Oh and by the way, they have a lying liberal
media covering up the scam and allowing them to basically
(17:48):
say it's profit in price gouging by insurance companies, which it's.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Not, and it's climate change.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Hell, everything is now blamed done on Donald Trump and
climate change. Those are the two things that Democrats fall
back to. You stubbed your toe, climate change, Your.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
Hair is thinning, climate change.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Any of their screw ups, and I want to use
a stronger word, any of their screw ups they blame
on climate change or Trump, and the media lets them
away with it, lets them get away with it. So
people say, well, Carl, if it's not climate change, if
it's not price gouging, why are the insurance rates skyrocketing,
(18:34):
Why are insurance companies in so much distress that they
then turn around saying we have to charge more. Well,
there are three drivers of the insurance crisis, and they
all are about government policy failures. Number one, there is
an actuarial model that sets your insurance rates. An actuarial
(18:59):
model a bunch of smart mathematicians get together and they
look at all the disasters. They look at all the fires,
the floods, the pipe bursts, any damage that happens to
the places that they ensure, and they have decades and
decades and decades of this data and that allows them
to predict how many of those things will happen next year. Okay,
(19:23):
so that number one is it's called the number of
incidents lost incidents, and they're.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Pretty good at predicting this.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
They multiply those lost incidents by the amount of money
they have to pay out to replace the damage, so
replacement costs. They then add profit and administration, and that
becomes the basis of your rates.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
Pretty simple.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Right. If they get one of those elements wrong, there's
a problem. So let's talk about losses. We actually haven't
had more losses in California in terms of loss incidents,
so it may seem like fires are completely out of control.
(20:14):
But fire damage is actually not the number one claim.
It's leaky pipe. What are you gonna say climate change
caused more pipes to burst? No, it hasn't. We do
not have a higher incidence incident of losses incidents. We
(20:39):
do have a higher payout of losses, and so the
payout is driven by something called construction inflation. Now, if
you have done any home renovation, or if you've had
to do a home repair in the last three, four
or five years since COVID, right, you probably have had
(20:59):
a heart tech when you got the bid back, because
any sort of home improvement, drywall paint, any sort.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Of electrical work.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Is much more expensive today than it was prior to COVID.
Why well, we've had massive inflation since COVID, We've had
disruption of supply chains that haven't yet recovered. The labor
market is a lot tighter, and so the replacement costs
(21:33):
of fixing damage from the same number of incidents has
gone much higher, and it actually exceeded what the mathematicians expected.
That created an environment of massive losses. So the first
thing that we're dealing with is inflation, and that again
I don't blame the market for inflation. I blame politicians
(21:56):
for inflation. The second thing that drives insurance are insurance
regulatory costs.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
That is that the government says.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
To insurance companies, you have to offer the following coverage,
whether the consumer wants the coverage or not. There are
all sorts of requirements and mandates that cost the insurance
companies money, and then they have to they have to
add it into your insurance policy because the government.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Says you have to do this. The government at the
same time says we're not going.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
To let you increase insurance rates, and so for the
last twenty years under Prop One O three, they've limited,
when necessary, the increases arbitrarily. So we have insurance regulations
that are not reflective of market reality. We also have
(22:56):
in regulations that tell insurance companies they have to force
fees coverage on people that may not even want that
type of coverage. They might want to save the money,
they might want to take some of that risk, but
California doesn't allow that. Third, in California, we actually have
(23:18):
created not more fires because of climate change, but the
severity of fires is much greater because we haven't done
proper forest management. So the number of fires, the Democrats
like to say, well, because of climate change, we have
more fires. That's not true, none of the data, none
of the science. We have actually not had more fires
(23:40):
in society. We've had more severe fires because they burn
with more intensity.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Now, now, why might that be climate change? Now? No, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
You know, climate change has not caused trees to die.
Climate change is not caused brush to grow. That just happens.
And if you don't properly maintain your forest, if you
don't thin your forests, if you don't allow logging, if
you don't trim the brush in the canyons the backcountry,
(24:19):
all of that builds up over time so that when
a fire does happen, and guess what, it's a natural
part of our ecosystem. Fires happen. Don't blame climate change.
It's called mother nature. She's been doing it for millions
of years. It's a healthy ecosystem. When we have a fire, air, wind, water, fire,
(24:40):
these are all natural elements, natural occurrences.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
But if you don't maintain your.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Ecosystem, then you're going to have major, major catastrophic fires
that you can't control anymore. So fire management, brush management,
forest management, whatever you want to call it. We've not
done proper trimming of the shrubs. And that's government's responsibility
(25:07):
because you've got millions of acres of land held by government.
Think about La, all the canyons. That's not the federal government.
The Forest Service doesn't do that, Department of Interior doesn't
do that. That's the city and County of LA that
(25:27):
manage all of those canyons, all that brush. Then you
have state parks and you have federal parks. Government has
not managed and maintained the brush. Not only they do
not allow logging or forest thinning because the enviros don't
(25:49):
want it.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
They don't even trim.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
And of course, let's be very clear, they're not allowing
private homeowners to trim because all the environmental regulations say, well,
you're not allowed to trim because there might be fairy
shrimp there, there might be some spotted out. And so
people who want to protect their property and do the
right thing and put the money into hiring landscapers that
(26:14):
come in and clear the brush, they're told no, or
they're worse, they're fined. So coming up, I'm gonna give
you proof positive of this and it's happening in La
and you can see it. You can go hike and
you can see it up close and personal for yourself.
Where government is the bad neighbor down the street creating
a whole risk to the whole neighborhood. And why we
(26:35):
should hold local government officials and state government officials accountable
for them increasing the fire risk in California. Plus what
can we do about it. We've got a bill to
fix the problem and lower your rates. It's all coming
up as Carl Demyo me sits in for John coblt.
Speaker 4 (26:51):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI Am
six forty.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Coming up at two o'clock. How do we really take
back California when the Democrats have money and the media
a special interest control their corrupt system.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
Well, it's actually easier than you may think.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
And in twenty twenty six, I think it's going to
start really happening. We already saw a good shift in
twenty four. But that's coming up at two o'clock. We're
getting the details of that. But plus any questions you
might have for me, any issues you want me to tackle,
We're gonna take a lot of these in the next
two hours. Use the talkback feature on the iHeartRadio app
to ask any question and we will get through the
(27:34):
good ones and try to stump me.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
I'm game.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
We're talking about insurance. Insurance rates are skyrocketing. Homeowners are hurting.
This is a massive budget buster in the household budget.
This is causing people to lose their homes, literally lose
their homes because they're being priced out of their home
because they can't afford the insurance anymore. We're talking about
if you're lucky, sixty seventy percent increases, one hundred percent increases,
(28:01):
if you're lucky, three hundred four hundred percent increases. If
you get shoved onto the government plan. The politicians claim
it's climate change and price gouging, but they're lying. They're lying,
it's them. They've created the problem. Number One, through Biden inflation,
construction costs are way up, so when insurance companies have
(28:22):
to do replacement under your insurance policy, costs of.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
More, so they are now needing to recoup that with
higher rates.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Number two, the insurance market is way over regulated in California,
too much red tape. The costs are staggering, so we
have to reform the insurance market to allow them to
offer products that homeowners actually want. Let homeowners pick and
choose what coverage they have rather than having all these mandates.
(28:51):
And three, the government has been that lousy neighbor that's
allowed their brush to be complete overgrown, and that's made
a risk to the entire neighborhood.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
It's time that we go to the.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Government and say we are sick and tired of you
being a lousy neighbor. Clean up your crap, thin the forests,
trim the trees. I offered a bill to do just this.
It also protected you from rate increases. It was It's
(29:27):
an Assembly Bill five six seven, the Cup, the Cut
and Cap Insurance Reform Act. It basically said that the
homeowners would only be responsible for rates that are in
line with the national average, not a penny more, and
(29:48):
that if the rates had to go higher because of
the insurance company's higher costs, because of regulation or mismanaged forest,
the government would have to fill in. Yes, that we
would take it from the government budget. The first thing
we do is suspend that insurance tax that allows them
to gain whenever your rates go up. Second, implement the
(30:08):
deregulation and third do a bunch of trimming of forests
and brush around the state.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
They killed the bill. But coming up, I.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Want to share with you an example from local government
here in southern California as why we need to go
to city hall to demand action because these fires are
going to keep happening and a lot of it can
be traced back to negligence by local governments. All that
coming up, the insurance crisis. Carl to myo filling in
for John cole Belt, but first news with Deborah Mark
(30:39):
in the twenty four hour Newsroom at KFI.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Hey, you've been listening to the John Cobalt Show podcast.
You can always hear the show live on KFI Am
six forty from one to four pm every Monday through Friday,
and of course anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
The John Kobylt Show News
Host
John Kobylt
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