Insurance and global warming

The New York Times has an article about the reaction (and non-reaction) of insurers to higher risk of property damage as a result of global warming.

My guess is that the government will find itself more and more in the property insurance business. Just as it entered the flood insurance market through the National Flood Insurance Program, the government will have to make a choice about whether to abandon owners of property now at high risk for hurricanes and other disasters or to subsidize them. 

My vote would be a gradually phased-out subsidy, perhaps with an income-based component.  Just as I don't think that taxpayers should have to pay to protect the houses of people who choose to build on unstable lands prone to falling into oceans or canyons, I don't think that over the long-term taxpayers should have to pay to protect property that is highly likely to be destroyed by relatively predictable weather disasters.  But I also don't want to see those property owners suffer a unilateral loss as a result of global warming, an event we have all caused and should all bear responsibility for.  And I want to see poorer people with more protections for their limited assets.   

Republicans in Congress working on flood insurance

I write periodically about the imminent expiration/actual expiration/retroactive extension of the National Flood Insurance Program, or NFIP. NFIP is a program of the Federal Emergency Management Agency ("FEMA") that issues standard flood insurance policies, mostly through private insurers. NFIP is created by statute, and was originally set to expire in October, 2008. Congress has issued several short-term extensions to it.

Even though there is now a whopping six months until NFIP expires again, this time round, according to this article in Insurance Journal, one side of the aisle is already working on the issue. The Republican draft of legislation will phase out subsidies (and therefore the entire program; the whole point of NFIP is to provide subsidies).

Congress working on bill to extend National Flood Insurance Program by five years

I have written several times (click the link and then scroll down to see earlier posts) about the National Flood Insurance Program, or NFIP, a program of the Federal Emergency Management Agency ("FEMA") that issues standard flood insurance policies, mostly through private insurers. NFIP is created by statute, and was originally set to expire in October, 2008. Congress has issued several short-term extensions to it. Recently Congress has had to reauthorize the program retroactively, and the program now expired again, leaving some homeowners unable to buy flood insurance.

Insurance & Financial Advisor reports here that Congress is working on a bill that reauthorizes NFIP until September 15, 2015. The article reports that the current version of the bill adds wind coverage, but such efforts have failed in the past.

According to the article, the current version of the bill increases coverage limits but phases out out premium subsidies for second homes and vacation homes.