March 28, 2007

NAIC Testifies re National Disaster Insurance

The Chair of the NAIC's Catastrophe Insurance Working Group testified in Washington on the role of insurance in preparing for large natural catastrophes. Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty testified to a Congressional subcommittee that “Congress and the states need to work together to develop a comprehensive plan today to better manage and mitigate the natural catastrophic events of tomorrow.”

McCarthy advocated for enforcement of better building codes, mitigation measures and land use. Outlining the challenges of insuring catastrophic risk and some of the state and federal solutions, McCarty asked for a National Commission on Catastrophe Preparation to do further study.

“Hurricane Katrina may have been the cause of the national attention on this issue, but as that tragic day moves further into history, we still have no comprehensive national approach to managing catastrophes of that magnitude,” McCarty said. “Thankfully, 2006 was a relatively calm year for property and casualty insurers. But this window of opportunity to act is merely the eye of the storm, and we need to take advantage of it.”

The entire testimony is available at the NAIC's website. It includes tables showing the "after-the-fact" allocation of federal costs of Katrina to each of the fifty states, and maps of vulnerability of each state to various natural catastrophes.

DougSimpson.com/blog

Posted by dougsimpson at March 28, 2007 08:30 AM