Insurers Are Deserting Homeowners as Climate Shocks Worsen | Without insurance, it’s impossible to get a mortgage; without a mortgage, most Americans can’t buy a home.
Insurers Are Dropping Homeowners as Climate Shocks Worsen
I don’t wish misfortune on any person but, this is a good thing. Yes, there is a housing crisis, but part of that crisis is where and what we are constructing. If we are utilizing resources (whether it’s capital, labor, or materials) to reconstruct buildings every 3-10 years then those resources cannot be use to construct more sustainable housing.
Part of the problem is the way the flood insurance subsidization program works. Don’t get me wrong. Insurance needs to be affordable, but the program needs to adjusted so that when a claim is made in the highest risk areas, the payout is sufficient to relocate the insuree to less risky property, and the claimed property could be transferred to the department of the interior or other entity responsible for converting the land to a flood mitigation zone. (Likely reverting it back to the wetlands that were drained to build in the first place).
I wouldn’t even know where to start with fire risk zones…
For fire risk the premiums should be sufficient to allow insurance companies to do the mitigation work like vegetation clearing and controlled burns. Or pay into a fund that has state wildlands fire departments like cal fire do the work since they're also the ones that fight the fires. It can also turn into a employment boom for young able bodied folks.
Oh look, the hard unavoidable consequences of "it's just a few degrees"
If my house was destroyed due to climate disaster and all my livelihood and possessions were gone, and the insurance I was paying had the audacity to tell me they removed my insurance I would luigi their entire board of executives.
And wouldn't stop there....
“They may cuss us out,” Mr. Taylor said. “But they never stop building.”
One of the problem is new properties should not be allowed to be built in such areas. Others should be kind of grand-fathered, but I understand if insurers are being bankrupted, there is a problem somewhere.
That’s alright. Megacorp(tm), who incidentally also owns an insurance company, will buy it and gladly rent it to you.
Insurance is a scam. Fuck them. I pay each fucking paycheck and they don't want to pay. What if everyone dropped their insurance and then paid out of pocket. As long as you are paying something, they can not collect, and hospitals can't turn you away.
This is literally what America is fine with health insurance CEOs being denied further life coverage.
Edit: The article is about health insurance, but it doesn't matter. The goal of insurance is to take your money, use your money to invest, and then try not to pay you anything. Yes, people have had insurance cover some things in an emergency, but they should be doing more.
You probably can't pay out of pocket to replace your house if it burns down.
This article is about homeowners insurance, not health insurance
ALL insurance is a scam. They are ALL the same. Insurance companies do nothing but pay less than what has been given. That's how they make money.
Might be true but if it was collectivized and not for profit, perhaps home ownership insurance would be worthwhile. It might have also exerted some regulation over the cancerous development of the suburbs, especially in places where growth and development was known to be a systemic problem decades ago. Like Florida, Arizona, Nevada, etc.
Ultimately, insurance is a bucket of money we all pay into to help the few who go through an emergency
Obviously you need administration to handle the bureaucracy and make sure no one is stealing from the emergency pot fraudulently
That being said, what I take exception to is the profit. Why, the ever loving fuck, is it ok to take more than your costs for this? Why is money intended for the public good funneled up to the ownership class?
Pay your people, pay out the coverage. The rest of the money has no business leaving the pot... Not to run ads, or to lobby lawmakers. Definitely not to end up in an unrelated person's pocket.
It's a case for a government run entity if I've ever seen one
It is almost like we already have a home ownership crisis or or something. NYT in the clouds once again.
Clouds maybe, but they’re the ones talking about it, not many others.
What's going on here is that Sheldon Whitehouse, the Democratic Senator, held a hearing which made data about insurance drops and rate increases public. That's creating a news cycle about it