Exploring the financial risks state insurance plans face in covering natural disaster claims as private insurers withdraw, raising concerns over their ability to pay out claims and the need for greater financial transparency and adequate reserves.
As climate risks grow, some private home insurance providers are retreating from US regions most vulnerable to catastrophe. And homeowners who can’t get coverage through the private market are increasingly turning to insurance “plans of last resort,” created by states.
The amount of liability taken on by these types of insurance plans is staggering, and growing: by some estimates, they’re holding more than $1 trillion of risk.
On today’s Big Take podcast, climate reporter Leslie Kaufman and California reporter Nadia Lopez share an investigation into how skyrocketing enrollment in state-created plans could create the conditions for a financial crisis.
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