[Durham INC] Should we be subsidizing insurance on the coast?

[Pat Carstensen]

The "Beach Plan" to insure against catastrophic hurricane damage is drastically underfunded and the legislature is looking at ways to fix it.  The fix: HB 1305 would have you and me get with 10% surcharges on our home insurance if there is a really bad hurricane on the coast.

The Asheville paper has been doing pretty good coverage of the problem:
http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200990717030

Actually, I think the proposal is mostly as good as can be done -- the alternatives are having a lot of insurers leave the state or having huge increases in rates for folks on the coast.

What outrages me is the upper bound on what is covered:  it is limited to residential properties valued up do $750,000 -- 7 times the value of my house (taking assessed value minus land).  I really can't see how someone who is changing bedpans in an extended care facility in Asheville should be subsidizing someone's second home that was build in a place the practically dares hurricanes to knock it down.

I think the upper bound should be tied to average NC home values.  I would even be OK if the limit were the 65 percentile or 150% of the average cost, just so it has some semblance of fairness.

Regards, pat

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