You Could Have Seen This Storm Coming 3000 Miles Away

It appears that the insurance industry is blowing up a category 5 storm of their own…

Newsweek is reporting this week that people living near coastal regions are increasingly finding it ever more more difficult to get homeowner’s insurance, if they can get homeowners insurance at all. According to the article, the cancellations and rate increases are the result of, “An increase in ‘extreme weather events’ that many scientists—and now insurers—believe are linked to climate change.”

I have to laugh at the insurance industry. Nothing like hopping on the bandwagon and using it as an excuse for sucking a little more blood from their victi… er, customers. As you’ll note from this article, you can have a house for years and never make a claim. You can have your rates increase year-over-year simply by virtue of the fact the a number on the calendar has changed and then you can have your insurance coverage pulled out from under you for nothing more than a fear that it’s possible that something might happen to your house if some “global warming related event” happened to occur in your neighborhood.

To me, this smacks of an industry that wants to have its cake and eat it too. They’re happy to take your money month after month and year after year, but as soon as the jig is up, the moment the “bet” is lost, the insurance industry finds a way to collect their cards and their pile of money and head home; without leaving a dime on the table. (Just have a look at the thousands of people whose insurance coverage amounted to zilch in New Orleans.)

Can anyone say it’s time for insurance reform?