Auto insurance minimums in California
California requires drivers to carry auto liability insurance, and the minimum limits are 30/60/15. Written out, that is $30,000 of bodily injury liability per person, $60,000 of bodily injury liability per accident, and $15,000 of property damage liability per accident. The three numbers are always in that order, and they are the legal floor, not a coverage recommendation: a serious crash can produce losses far above the minimum, and the minimum is the most the insurer will pay, not the most the crash will cost.
California's minimums are higher than the most common pattern in the country: $25,000 bodily injury per person, $50,000 per accident, $25,000 property damage. The figures come from Vehicle Code section 16056, as amended by Senate Bill 1107, which raised them from the old 15/30/5 limits for policies issued or renewed on or after 1 January 2025. The same law raises them again, to 50/100/25, for policies issued or renewed on or after 1 January 2035, so 30/60/15 is the floor today and not the last word. Either way, the minimum is a floor: a serious crash can exceed it, and the insurer pays only up to the limit.
The minimums are for private passenger vehicles, and they are not the only cover the state requires. California does not require personal injury protection, and uninsured and underinsured motorist cover is not required either: the insurer must offer it, and it stays on the policy unless the named insured rejects it in writing. Medical payments cover is optional, and it is the cover that pays your own medical bills regardless of fault. Drivers who need proof of future financial responsibility after a serious violation file an SR-22 with the California Department of Motor Vehicles, and the filing is usually kept for three years from reinstatement. Lenders and leasing companies require more again: a financed or leased car usually has to carry collision and comprehensive cover, and often higher liability limits, because the lender's interest in the car has to be protected. A driver who buys only the state minimum and skips collision cover has no cover for their own car at all, and the state minimum does not change that. The site's guide to full coverage versus liability works through the decision, including what a lender counts as full coverage.
Fault, PIP and uninsured motorist cover in California
California is an at-fault, or tort, state. After a crash, the driver who caused it — or rather that driver's insurer — pays for the other driver's injuries, and the injured driver has to show the other driver was at fault. There is no PIP requirement, no first-party payment before fault is decided, and no threshold limiting the right to sue for pain and suffering. California uses pure comparative fault, so a recovery is reduced by the injured driver's own share of fault, however large that share is, rather than being barred at a fixed percentage.
Uninsured and underinsured motorist cover is the protection against the other driver's lack of cover, and its position in California is: it is not required, but the insurer must offer it, and it stays on the policy unless the named insured rejects it in writing. A driver hit by an uninsured driver claims on their own uninsured motorist cover, where they carry it. The site's California uninsured motorist guide works through the detail in full — the compulsory offer, the written waiver, the limits that match the liability cover, the $3,500 property-damage cover and the two-year deadline. The practical point is the same in every state: the minimum liability limits say what the other driver must carry, and uninsured motorist cover says what happens when they do not carry it — and the two together decide whether a crash with an uninsured driver leaves you paying out of pocket.
No-fault is the system most often confused with the minimums, and it is worth separating the two. The minimums say how much liability cover you must carry. No-fault says who pays for injuries after a crash. California is not a no-fault state, so there is no PIP requirement and no threshold on suing. The at-fault driver's liability pays for injuries, once fault is established — subject to the pure comparative fault rule above. The site's no-fault guide explains the twelve no-fault states, the choice states, and the thresholds that limit lawsuits for pain and suffering. Read the page for your own state before relying on the general description, because the general description is a map and the state page is the road.
Home insurance in California
No state law in California requires a homeowner to carry homeowners insurance. The requirement, where it exists, comes from the lender: a mortgage lender almost always requires homeowners cover as a condition of the loan, and the lender sets the dwelling limit it will accept. A homeowner without a mortgage is not legally required to insure the house, but an uninsured house is an uninsured asset — a fire, a storm or a burst pipe can destroy the largest asset most people own, and there is no cover to rebuild it.
A standard homeowners policy in California has the same six parts as everywhere in the country: dwelling, other structures, personal property, loss of use, personal liability and medical payments, as the National Association of Insurance Commissioners describes them. The dwelling limit is set by the estimated rebuild cost, not the market value, and the site's homeowners cost calculator works that figure out from the living area and a rebuild cost per square foot. Flood and earthquake are excluded from a standard policy and need separate cover — flood through the National Flood Insurance Program or a private flood insurer, earthquake through a separate earthquake policy — and the site's flood and earthquake guides explain the routes. Your flood zone is an address-level fact, not a state-level one, so check the zone for the address, not for the state. In California, earthquake cover is the point to check first: a standard policy excludes earthquake damage, and the site's California earthquake guide explains the separate earthquake route in full.
The deductible deserves the same attention in California as anywhere else. The minimum deductible offered by most insurers is $500 or $1,000, according to the Insurance Information Institute, and for wind, hail and hurricane damage the deductible is often a percentage of the home's insured value, typically 1% to 5% according to the III. On a home insured for $300,000, a 2% wind and hail deductible is $6,000. The site's tornado and hail guides explain the percentage deductible and the cosmetic-damage rule in full, and the declarations page should show both deductibles — the flat all-other-perils amount and the percentage wind and hail amount — before the policy is bought.
Health insurance in California
Health cover in California runs through the marketplace: California runs its own marketplace, Covered California. Enroll through Covered California for marketplace cover and premium tax credits. The site's enrollment and subsidies guide walks through the ACA route, and the subsidy calculator estimates what a premium tax credit would do to the monthly cost. Losing other cover is the common trigger for a special enrollment period, and a marketplace plan bought through it covers pre-existing conditions, covers essential health benefits, and can be bought with a tax credit — the three things a short-term plan does not offer.
Medicaid in California: California has expanded Medicaid since 1 January 2014, so adults can qualify on income up to 138% of the poverty level. Medi-Cal is California's Medicaid programme. The site's Medicaid eligibility guide and its checker explain the income rules, and they are the place to test eligibility rather than assuming it.
Short-term health insurance in California: Short-term health plans are not sold in California. State law has prohibited their sale, renewal or offer since 1 January 2019, under Insurance Code section 10123.61, added by Senate Bill 910. A Californian who needs cover for a gap should use the marketplace, COBRA or Medi-Cal — there is no short-term plan to buy. The site's short-term hub guide explains the federal duration rule, the August 2025 pause on enforcing it, and the alternatives that cover more — an ACA plan through a special enrollment period, COBRA continuation of an employer's plan, or Medicaid if income qualifies.
The regulator, complaints and how to check a quote
Insurance in California is regulated by the California Department of Insurance. The regulator licenses insurers, approves the rating plans that set premiums and discounts, and handles complaints when an insurer's conduct is in question. If a claim is denied or underpaid, or if an insurer's behaviour seems wrong, the regulator is the place to complain — and the complaint should be made with the policy, the declarations page and the claim correspondence in hand, because the regulator decides on the record.
Before buying any policy in California, run the checks in this order. First, the licence: is the insurer licensed in California, under the name on the policy. Second, the cover: do the limits match the need — the auto minimums above are the floor, not the recommendation, and the home dwelling limit should match the rebuild cost. Third, the settlement method and the exclusions: is the roof settled at replacement cost or actual cash value, is flood covered or excluded, is there a cosmetic-damage exclusion. Fourth, the deductible: what is the flat deductible, is there a percentage wind and hail deductible, and can you pay it from savings on the day of a loss. Fifth, the price: compare like with like, on identical limits, identical deductibles and identical cover types, and compare the total cost, not the premium alone.
Keep the documents together after buying: the policy, the declarations page, the insurer's claims number, and the regulator's contact details, in a place you can reach after a loss. A flooded house or a crashed car is a bad time to discover that the only copy of the policy was in the house or the car. The site's editorial policy explains how this site reviews its guides, and the contact page gives the address for questions about the site itself — but for a question about a policy, the insurer and the regulator are the authorities, not this site.
Worked example
Consider an ILLUSTRATIVE driver in California buying a first policy. She starts with the state minimums — 30/60/15 — and asks whether they are enough: a serious crash can produce medical bills above the per-person limit and property damage above the property-damage limit, so she compares quotes at higher limits as well as at the minimum, on identical deductibles, and checks what the extra cover costs. She reads the fault section above and notes that there is no PIP paying her medical bills while fault is decided, that she can sue for pain and suffering without clearing a threshold, and that any recovery is reduced by her own share of fault. She checks the home policy for the same household against the rebuild cost, confirms the roof's settlement method, and reads both deductibles on the declarations page. She checks the health position — the marketplace route, the Medicaid position, and whether a short-term plan is even sold in California — before assuming that a short-term plan is an option. The example's value is the method, not any figure in it: no premium is stated, because premiums vary by insurer and by driver. What it shows is that the state rules are the starting point for every quote, and a quote judged against another state's rules is a quote misjudged.