Re: LA Times: Change Sought to Cover Losses

[mallard]

How to cover insurance industry losses on Katrina - mandatory home-owner insurance?

Re: Los Angeles Times - 10/5/05 - Change Sought to Cover Losses
by David Stretfield:

<http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-insure5oct05,0,7363042.story?coll=la-home-headlines>

A LONG ROAD TO RECOVERY

Mandatory national insurance for disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes is getting a serious look. Critics call it a bailout for carriers.

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita exposed such major shortcomings in the nation's insurance system that regulators from several states are drawing up plans for a national catastrophe insurance program.

Its backers argue that without a major overhaul, the current system will once again perform miserably in a big California quake, a major terrorist attack or storms that echo this season's in size and intensity.

Details of the program are to be worked out at a summit in San Francisco next month led by California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi and his counterparts from New York and Florida. One strong possibility is that the program will be mandatory for all U.S. homeowners in the same way liability insurance is required for car owners.

[acmejack]

1. That is outrageous!

More corporate welfare, this time for one of the most profitable sectors in business.

[electropop]

2. Great idea, in fact,

Why not just replace the private insurance companies with government provided insurance? Chop out the outrageous profit margin, and also you get to have the biggest underwriter you could imagine. The insurance companies have just provided us with the idea that we could use to eliminate them and their corruption.

[Demeter]

4. Right After Single Payer Health Insurance

because a lot of fat cats are going to have heart attacks!

[electropop]

6. Yeah, those insurance execs better hope their

personal coverage is better than what they sell. :evilgrin: They're gonna need it once we flip the government and go after 'em.

[Bigmack]

3. Now I'm more and more...

... convinced of Global Warming. The insurance industry is trying to figure a way to weasel their way out of paying off in the event of disasters.

What better way to save your ass than to have the taxpayers bail you out.

[cap]

5. maybe if the insurance companies forced eco-friendly policies

they would have fewer and less costly claims?

How about restoring the Gulf Coast wetlands to provide a buffer?