To hear Florida politicians talk about a national catastrophe fund,
you'd think it was the elusive silver bullet to kill high home insurance
rates.
But the concept continues to run into a walls elsewhere -- including
from hurricane-struck states.
Louisiana state Rep. Shirley Bowler tells the trade publication
"National Underwriter" that she's against a national catastrophe fund
because expanding the federal role in insurance undercuts state
regulation of the same. She doesn't like, either, what Florida did by
doubling the size of its own catastrophe fund, calling that move the
"pinnacle of failure."
A delegation of Louisiana lawmakers descended on Tallahassee shortly
after the January special session, to get the lay of the land before
taking on the insurance industry in their own session starting next month.
Florida's Sen. Steve Geller, a former president of the National
Conference of Insurance Legislators, is increasingly frustrated in his
failure to convince fellow lawmakers of the beauty of a nationwide
catastrophe fund. After four years of study, NCOIL has decided to ....
give it more study.
Meanwhile, insurance companies themselves are split on the wisdom of
a national program to insure hurricane risks. Allstate has long been a
major proponent of such a fund.
But the American Insurance Association says in advance of today's
national meeting of state insurance regulators that government should
stay out of the insurance business ... that the industry is coping with
catastrophic losses just fine.