California homeowners will have to fund half of high-risk insurer’s $1 billion ‘bailout’

AFTER SAYING IT would run out of funds by March, California’s last-resort fire insurance provider will impose a special charge of $1 billion on insurance companies — which will in turn pass the costs along to homeowners — the first such move in more than three decades.

The state Insurance Department last week approved a request from the provider, the FAIR Plan, to impose the charge and ensure it stays solvent as it covers claims from victims of the Los Angeles County fires, the department said in an order by Commissioner Ricardo Lara.