The Wall Street Journal has an article explaining how the insurance industry is trying to nationalize disaster insurance. This is really being done to protect the insurance companies from making bad decisions and providing insurance in areas that should not be built in. Even businesses want to be protected from their own stupidity and they are going to do it at our expense. The taxpayers are going to pay for this which is going to gradually lead to more and more taxes and regulations.
WASHINGTON — As hurricane season begins, Democrats in Congress want to nationalize a chunk of the insurance business that covers major storm-damage claims.
The proposal — backed by giant insurers Allstate Corp. and State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., as well as Florida lawmakers — focuses on “reinsurance,” the policies bought by insurers themselves to protect against catastrophic losses. The proposal envisions a taxpayer-financed reinsurance program covering all 50 states, which would essentially backstop the giant insurers in case of disaster.
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But environmentalists and other critics — including the American Insurance Association, a major trade group — say lower premiums would more likely spur irresponsible coastal development, already a big factor in insurance costs. The program could also shift costs to taxpayers in states with fewer natural-disaster risks.“This bill makes it a little bit too easy for the state to go to the federal government for a bailout,” said Eric Goldberg, associate general counsel at the American Insurance Association, an insurers’ trade group.
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The two Democratic contenders, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York and Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, in their recent visits to Florida — a key swing state — have both voiced support for the plan.
I’d like to know where John McCain stands. It would be nice to have at least one Presidential Candidate who is opposed to this nannyocracy legislation.