You know that living in a place called Tornado Alley or one that is pounded year after year by hurricanes will raise your home owner’s insurance rates. You, as a free thinking person decide to either not live there or to put tooth to leather and pay the extra coin for your choice.
But not any more, if the Democrats in Congress have anything to say about it
As hurricane season begins, Democrats in Congress want to nationalize a chunk of the insurance business that covers major storm-damage claims.
The proposal — backed by giant insurers Allstate Corp. and State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., as well as Florida lawmakers — focuses on “reinsurance,” the policies bought by insurers themselves to protect against catastrophic losses. The proposal envisions a taxpayer-financed reinsurance program covering all 50 states, which would essentially backstop the giant insurers in case of disaster.
The program could save homeowners roughly $500 apiece in annual premiums in Florida, according to an advocacy group backed by Allstate and State Farm, the largest writers of property insurance in the U.S.
I hate to say it, but the green-weenies and I both agree that this is a bad idea, though for different reasons.
I don’t like my tax dollars being spent in making the lives of others more comfortable (unless it buys AC for soldiers in the Sandbox). The eco-socialists don’t like the way residential and commercial property development would spike with cheap insurance rates (and they say that “the market” doesn’t work).
Either way, this is bad juju.
Found @ Right Thinking
Some years ago, there actually was federal flood insurance (NOT reinsurance, INSURANCE) for beachfront properties. That lasted until the feds realized that rebuilding vacation homes again and again for rich folks on the outer banks of North Carolina was a political disaster in terms of publicity.
Looks like that lesson has been unlearned.