California insurance commissioner says State Farm announcement is a ‘crisis’ [Video]

California’s insurance commissioner Ricardo Lara spoke out after the state’s largest home insurance provider announced that it would discontinue coverage for tens of thousands of policies this summer.

State Farm announced on March 20 that it would cut 72,000 home and apartment policies in California because of inflation, regulatory costs and increasing risks from catastrophes. The decision is a blow to California property owners, who already suffer under high insurance rates or scarce policy coverage.

“This is a real crisis,” Commissioner Lara told KABC in an interview Friday.

The commissioner said he wants to investigate State Farm’s finances, but warned that regulators can’t go too far, or else they would risk pushing companies out of California entirely.

STATE FARM CUTS 72,000 CALIFORNIA HOME INSURANCE POLICIES: ‘DECISION WAS NOT MADE LIGHTLY’

“Insurance companies are not like utility companies,” he told KABC. “By law, they don’t have to be here, and when we try to …