The cost to insure a home has soared in many U.S. states in recent years, and lawmakers in Washington are taking notice.
Democrats and Republicans sparred during a Senate Banking Committee hearing Thursday over the causes of rising home-insurance rates and deductibles and the trend of some insurance companies abandoning markets in states like California and Florida where they believe its no longer profitable to operate.
Sen. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat and the chair of the committee, pointed the finger primarily at climate change and the increased incidence of natural disasters, noting that in 2023, the U.S. has already experienced 15 weather disasters that have caused damages exceeding $1 billion, compared with a 40-year average of 7.9 such disasters per year.
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“As weather patterns continue to change because of climate change, risk and exposure will extend to places that have not previously been prone to natural catastrophes,” Brown said. “This has led insurance companies to re-evaluate risk concentration levels — and not just on the coasts.”
Other Senate Democrats, including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Sheldon Whitehouse of Vermont, are pressuring the Biden administration to use existing regulatory powers to “to take swift and aggressive action to tackle the climate crisis and protect consumers from climate-related risks,” as they wrote in a Tuesday letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
Specifically, they want the Treasury Department’s Federal Insurance Office to collect and publish “comprehensive and transparent data about the impact of climate change on the insurance industry,” to better understand why the average cost of home insurance has risen 21% since 2015.
Douglas Heller, director of insurance at the Consumer Federation of America, argued during the hearing that the federal government must do more than collect data to solve the problem and suggested that Congress pass legislation to help fund more resilient infrastructure and provide homeowners with incentives to improve their property in ways that mitigate the risks posed by national disasters.
He also suggested the creation of a public reinsurance facility that direct insurers could access to provide a backstop in the case of “mega-catastrophes,” the fear of which is leading some insurers to leave areas prone to natural disasters. In exchange for subsidized reinsurance, Heller argued, companies should be required to offer continuous and meaningful property insurance.
Senate Republicans were more eager to examine the role of state-level laws and regulations that they argued are an important driver of rising costs and reduced competition.
“So much attention is given to the challenges of environment, climate,” said Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the committee’s ranking Republican. “But too often what we see, whether it’s in Maui or in other states, is a manmade disaster that jeopardizes insurance in those states.”
Scott pointed to what he called California’s “overregulated market” as the reason that some insurers have decided to stop offering policies in that state, and he blamed tort law in Florida, where 79% of the nation’s homeowners-insurance lawsuits are filed, despite the state being home to only 9% of policies.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation earlier this year to reform the state’s tort law, which experts say will reduce costs for insurers by reducing the amount of damages and lawyers’ fees that they may be liable for in the course of litigation.
Leaders in California are also reportedly considering legislation that would make it easier for insurers to raise premiums, in the hope that this will prevent more companies from leaving the state.
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