A former candidate for California insurance coverage commissioner has accused fellow Democrat and Bernie Sanders-endorsed candidate Jane Kim of operating on a marketing campaign of “profound mental dishonesty.”
Kim, a former San Francisco supervisor who leads the progressive California Working Households Occasion, is operating for the state’s high insurance coverage job this November amid a disaster dramatically worsened by devastating wildfires.
Her solely different challenger within the basic election is state Sen. Ben Allen (D).
Patrick Wolff, who misplaced within the major for insurance coverage commissioner this 12 months, swung at her laborious in a Wednesday op-ed within the San Francisco Commonplace regardless of not having pores and skin within the recreation.
Wolff, who had a profession within the banking and finance industries, mentioned he had studied the crowded major of greater than eight candidates on their coverage platforms. Most of them addressed the state’s insurance coverage issues, he mentioned, even when he disagreed on how.
“Kim, in contrast, has campaigned on a platform of smoke and mirrors: huge speak, little respect for the details, and at instances outright falsehoods,” he wrote.
Wolff tore aside Kim’s signature coverage proposal — a single-payer disaster-insurance coverage for each Californian dubbed “Pure Catastrophe Insurance coverage for All.”
The thought is to create a single state fund, reasonably than counting on competing personal insurers, to cowl catastrophe losses for everybody.
“Everybody could be in the identical pool and pay premiums primarily based on components like property worth or threat,” Kim’s web site states.
Wolff blasted Kim’s references to different international locations providing comparable plans, noting that wildfire threat isn’t calculated into their applications.
“Kim’s concept of changing personal wildfire insurance coverage with the state would put California taxpayers on the hook for untold billions,” he said. “All she will say is that different international locations do one thing comparable. However that’s unfaithful: Her solely actual instance is a program in New Zealand that isn’t in any respect like what she proposes and doesn’t even cowl hearth.”
The complete proposal contains no concrete particulars or price figures, Wolff claimed, particulars that would doubtlessly elude voters not paying a lot consideration to the race.
He additionally blasted her different marketing campaign insurance policies, or the dearth thereof, as proof of alleged dishonestly.
A few of Kim’s coverage proposals, Wolff claimed, are shams. For instance, she promised to “cease insurers from utilizing credit score scores to disclaim protection” — despite the fact that a rule is already in place.
The California Put up contacted Kim’s marketing campaign for remark.
