Candidate for Insurance Commissioner Grew up Without Coverage

Sen. Ricardo Lara says he believes health care is a human right.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KCRA) — One of the candidates running for California insurance commissioner lived without health insurance as a child.

Democratic Sen. Ricardo Lara said he is the son of immigrants and lived in East Los Angeles as a child.

“As somebody who grew up without health insurance, I’m the only candidate in this position,” he said.

He added that he believes health care is a human right.

Nurses unions backed Lara’s bill to create health coverage for all Californians. It came with a price tag of $400 billion and stalled in the Legislature.

But his Health For All Kids Act now covers all California children with Medi-Cal, regardless of their immigration status.

He’s also worked on fire insurance. One bill, signed into law this year, protects homeowners by prohibiting their insurance companies from dropping their policies for the first year after a disaster.

“We see this happening all throughout the entire state,” Lara said. “Something we worked on in the Legislature, in particular in my bill, was to protect California homeowners from having their insurance drop all of a sudden after a major fire."

Lara also wrote an environmental bill that allows insurance money to be used to restore the state’s forests and wetlands and to protect communities from flooding and fires, wanting to "make sure that we're actually being smart about where we build," he said. 

The candidate said he plans to tackle an ongoing problem for the insurance industry, something that costs every one of us: fraud.

“We know that health care fraud continues to be a big issue in the state,” Lara said. “Worker’s comp fraud continues to be an issue that businesses continue to tackle across our state.”

As insurance commissioner, Lara said he would fight for consumers. 

“You know, I’m not a billionaire,” Lara said. "I’m just an average person trying to make a difference in the state. And for somebody that comes from an immigrant background, where this state has given us absolutely everything, it’s my honor to continue to serve.”

Steve Poizner is the other candidate in the insurance commissioner race. 

If that name sounds familiar, it’s because Poizner served as California’s insurance commissioner from 2007-2011. Back then, he was a Republican. Today, Poizner is running as an independent.