SACRAMENTO – California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones announced that Proposition 103, which became law 30 years ago, has saved California drivers $154 billion on their auto insurance and has lowered auto liability premiums in California by 5.7 percent according to an analysis by Consumer Federation of America.

Proposition 103, passed by California voters in November 1988, establishes the Insurance Commissioner's authority to reject excessive rate increases sought by insurance companies.

The law requires the "prior approval" of California's Department of Insurance before insurance companies can implement property and casualty insurance rates.

Prior to Proposition 103, automobile, property and casualty insurance rates were set by insurance companies without approval by the Insurance Commissioner.

"As insurance commissioner and the leader of the largest consumer protection agency in the state, my top priority is protecting consumers," said Commissioner Jones. "California voters gave me the responsibility under Proposition 103 to make sure that insurance companies do not charge consumers rates that are excessive. I am proud that actions by my department has continued to protect consumers and save them billions of dollars by lowering insurance rates."

Since Commissioner Jones took office in 2011, the California Department of Insurance has processed over 54,000 property and casualty insurance rate filings under Proposition 103, reduced the overall amount of requested rate increases by $1.5 billion and obtained over $1.9 billion in rate reductions, totaling over $3.4 billion in savings to California consumers and businesses. This total includes approximately $1.26 billion in rate reductions for personal auto coverage and $947 million in rate reductions for personal homeowners' coverage.

Last year the department's consumer hotline received over 147,000 calls for assistance. Through the department's complaint handling efforts, staff recovered more than $62.4 million for consumers in 2017. Additionally, the department performed 125 market conduct examinations, resulting in more than $18.9 million in recovered claims or premiums being returned to consumers.

Since Commissioner Jones took office in 2011, more than $469 million has been returned to consumers through consumer complaint investigations and market conduct examinations of insurance companies.