Congress must create a national windstorm program

Once again, the availability and adequacy of property insurance is a public issue. Our chaotic system of state regulation, with antitrust exemption, benefits insurance companies but not their customers. Florida is not alone in facing hurricane damage. States across the Southeast, and all coastal states, are threatened by hurricanes.

While hurricanes cause catastrophic wind damage, tornadoes do so, too, across our country. Windstorms are a national phenomena, and Americans must be protected.

The insurance industry has demonstrated repeatedly that it will not adequately act on a state-bystate basis, which would require upsetting cozy relationships with some states to benefit other states; it’s far easier to avoid the risk altogether.

Likewise, the Florida Legislature has demonstrated that it cannot or will not adequately require the insurance industry to act.

Taking advantage of state-by-state regulation, insurance companies simply stop issuing windstorm insurance in Florida or increase the premiums astronomically. By various means, such as using separate subsidiaries for different kinds of insurance, legislative efforts are thwarted.

The entire basis of insurance is to spread the risk of danger so that no one individual bears its cost. It is time for Congress to establish a national windstorm insurance program, as it did when it provided a national flood-insurance program.

Florida cannot go it alone. Our federal lawmakers must enlist support from other states most affected by hurricanes and tornadoes to establish a windstorm counterpart to flood insurance.