U.S. Representative Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) served as Florida’s Director of Emergency Management before winning his seat in Congress — and Florida, with its annual hurricane season, is a bit like graduate school for learning about natural disasters and how these impact communities financially and in every other way.
Responding to a Fox News report about insurance companies having cancelled homeowner policies very recently in the Pacific Palisades, the area being hit hardest by the devastating wildfires that are consuming Los Angeles, Moskowitz wrote that he had a bill to address the problem.
Moskowitz isn’t talking about how to put out the fires, but addressing how to protect people from losing everything in a disaster, which is the fate of the uninsured when disaster strikes. In order to keep people insured, Moskowitz suggests that the risk be spread out with government support, so that insurance companies won’t abandon the most dangerous areas and leave homeowners unprotected.
The plan creates a “national catastrophic insurance fund” to assist in places where the re-insurance business isn’t “actuarially sound.”
We must protect homeowners. We have seen this in Florida. It is coming to other states. I have a bill that uses NO taxpayer money, adds ZERO to the debt but uses bonds to bring down the cost of insurance by 25 percent. https://t.co/bR3JNKyb42
— Jared Moskowitz (@JaredEMoskowitz) January 9, 2025
Moskowitz is quick to emphasize that his solution “uses NO taxpayer money” and “adds ZERO to the debt.”
Introducing the bill in 2023, Moskowitz began with the paragraph below. If you substitute wildfires for hurricanes, you can see how it is relevant to the current situation in Southern California.
“Ahead of hurricane season, it’s critical for Floridians to have their homes insured in the event of severe damage. However, with storms becoming stronger and more frequent, insurance companies are seeking higher and higher reinsurance amounts, and those costs unfortunately get passed down to consumers. This legislation is a strong step towards stabilizing the insurance market and, most importantly, lowering rates for homeowners.”
Moskowitz’s bill purports to avoid adding to the debt or using taxpayer funds by selling bonds to create a fund that would enable the federal government to help “guarantee part of the insurance cost for homeowners when disaster strikes.”