The home insurance market is crumbling in New Orleans, leaving Alfredo Herrera with few options for coverage — and skyrocketing insurance premiums.
Herrera, 35, works in finance for a local bank. He bought his 900-square-foot home in New Orleans’ Mid-City neighborhood in 2020 for $270,000, and lives there with his partner.
In 2022, he paid $1,600 a year for home insurance. But last July, his insurer canceled his coverage, saying it was leaving Louisiana.
In the past, acquiring or keeping homeowners’ insurance didn’t present much of a problem.
But as climate change increases the frequency and severity of extreme weather, insurers — especially those in areas most impacted by floods and fires — are raising their premiums, or pulling out altogether, impacting the affordability and availability of home and fire insurance.
Insurance is a slush fund which earns interest in between taking in premiums and paying out claims. If you mandate that they lose money the whole game pretty obviously collapses and the losses are unlimited.
Any industry that is mandatory for some vital facet of life cannot be left to the whims of the market. It should be highly regulated, and preferably state run.
Price controls are needed to prevent the naked greedy price fixing we see in many other industries.
Price controls can cause all capital to exit the market. If the state picks up the tab and sets an unreasonably low rate the state may eventually go bankrupt and crease to be able to borrow
Depends. Monopolies with price controls work well for some industries, like utilities. I do agree that everything should be done to encourage a private market with competition, within reason, but regulation needs to be strong.