Homeowners in areas at high risk of wildfires could have an easier time finding insurance coverage in the future under an eagerly awaited proposal released Wednesday by the Department of Insurance.

Under the plan, companies will commit to write policies for a certain number of homes in regions of the state considered at greater risk. In return, they will be allowed to use computer models to predict future loses when asking to raise their rates.

As part of Wednesday’s announcement, the agency released ZIP codes and counties that companies could target to qualify with the agreement.

The areas include 28 California counties, including San Luis Obispo.

“Insurance companies need to commit to writing more policies, and my department will need to verify those commitments to hold companies accountable,” Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said during a news conference.

The proposal needs to go through a regulatory review and is not expected to be implemented until next year, at the earliest. It will be discussed at a virtual hearing June 26 and is being closely evaluated by insurance companies and consumer groups.

An influential insurance group weighed in shortly after the plan was released.

“This proposal is complex, with many trade-offs, including insurer commitments that no other state requires,” Seren Taylor, a lobbyist and vice president of the Personal Insurance Federation of California, said in a statement. “However, we remain committed to working with all stakeholders to increase insurance availability and restore the health of the insurance market.”

The department cannot require companies to write policies. But it can try to entice them, which is what it’s trying to do with this plan.

Companies will qualify under the agreement if they write a certain number of homes in high-risk areas or if they commit to increasing the number of policies they have in those areas by 5%.

Currently, companies are not allowed to use computer models when asking to change their rates. They must anticipate claims by looking at the past 20 years, a requirement trade groups argue is obsolete. California is the only state that forces companies to do so.

If companies don’t meet either of the thresholds laid out in Wednesday’s announcement, the department could revoke an insurer’s ability to use the models.

That said, insurers have two years to meet the commitment. The timeline concerned Carmen Balber, executive director of Consumer Watchdog, an advocacy organization, as did other aspects of the proposal.

“This is the one piece of the entire plan that was supposed to be the consumer benefit and it contains a lot of loopholes,” Balber said.