Commissioner Jones Follow Up Letter 5-24-17
Communities seek full and public investigation of racial discrimination in auto insurance.
Insurance redlining is a longstanding civil rights issue, nationally and in California. And it is not a thing of the past.
In April 2017 , the news outlet ProPublica found that some major insurers, eight of them in California, charge residents of minority neighborhoods as much as 30% more than residents of other areas with similar accident costs.
In April, Public Advocates wrote to California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones on behalf of a dozen groups to ask for a full investigation. We are pleased that Commissioner Jones is launching an investigation in response to our letter.
But we remain concerned that the Department is doing that behind closed doors, and not making the data public. We are calling for a full and transparent public investigation. It’s just too important an issue to have the public see conclusions without having any basis for understanding what went into them.
