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+--- Thread: State House and County Council Resolutions on LZ1 & LZ2 High Cost of Home Insurance (/showthread.php?tid=23164)
RE: Council Resolution on LZ1 & LZ2 High Cost of Home Insurance - Punatang - 02-27-2024
This is one of my 10 free articles per month. Anyone can sign up for the free articles so it seems OK to post.
Most insurance-related bills to help those in Lava Zones 1, 2 have stalled
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/26/hawaii-news/most-insurance-related-bills-to-help-those-in-lava-zones-1-2-have-stalled/
By MICHAEL BRESTOVANSKY Hawaii Tribune-Herald | Monday, February 26, 2024, 12:05 a.m.
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Efforts in the state Legislature to forestall an impending explosion of property insurance costs in lower Puna appear to have largely petered out.Don't run out! Subscribe now to receive unlimited access.
Puna Rep. Greggor Ilagan introduced this legislative session 10 separate bills aimed at alleviating home insurance rates in Lava Zones 1 and 2, where rates are expected to double or even quadruple after the area’s last major provider, Universal Property and Casualty Insurance Co. of Florida, withdraws from the state in August.
In the absence of any other providers, homeowners in Lava Zones 1 and 2 will be left to seek insurance from the state-run Hawaii Property Insurance Association, a provider of last resort that specifically formed to provide basic property insurance in those lava zones, but whose rates have ballooned over the last few years to thousands of dollars per year.
While Ilagan’s 10 bills sought a wide variety of solutions to remedy the crisis, all but three of them are dead in the water, having made little to no progress since the start of the legislative session.
The three surviving bills, while possibly offering solutions in the longer term, likely will provide little relief to residents staring down the barrel of a massive rate hike this year.
“I hope we can pass them, but they’re not going to be much help to the folks worried about this,” Ilagan told the Tribune-herald. “What they need are subsidies, what they need are lower premiums, what they need is better access to insurance.”
The three surviving bills are House Bills 2048, 2049 and 2056, which either make policy changes to HPIA or would initiate studies for a possible future solution to the insurance crisis somewhere down the line.
HB 2048 would change the composition of the HPIA board, increasing its number of public members from three to four and requiring them to be appointed by the House speaker and Senate president, instead of the state insurance commissioner. HB 2049 would require HPIA to be more transparent about its board membership and to post annual reports about its activities.
Meanwhile, HB 2056 would form a working group that would investigate the feasibility of a state-run reinsurance program, which could help insulate providers from the liabilities of operating in high-risk areas like Lava Zones 1 and 2. While the bill specifies that a report from that working group would be ready by 2025, Ilagan was blunt: “I feel like it’ll take longer. I have my doubts about 2025.”
The stalled bills — which aren’t technically dead yet, but have a little under two weeks to make it through multiple as-yet-unscheduled committee hearings and three readings in the House, which historically speaking is unlikely — included more immediate fixes such as establishing a state insurance fund to subsidize residents’ premiums, capping premiums on Lava Zone 1 and 2 properties, or even just prohibiting insurers from refusing coverage to an applicant because they live in a lava zone.
Ilagan said those measures did not receive support from other legislators, and admitted that some of them likely spooked the insurance industry in Hawaii.
While Ilagan was somewhat sanguine about the situation — he noted that only five of the 20 bills he’s introduced this session are still alive, a hit rate he described as “typical” for the legislative process — he said Puna lawmakers are always working uphill to get anything for their district.
Ilagan pointed out that another bill — HB 2686, which would stabilize HPIA insurance rates for condominiums — is still alive and progressing in the Legislature and contrasted that with the lack of support for a Puna-specific measure.
“This is the only district that has these lava zones — this one and parts of (District 5),” Ilagan said. “So, you have one or two representatives versus 35 Oahu representatives. … It’s hard to imagine that anyone else would introduce a bill for Lava Zones 1 and 2 if it’s not their district.”
“We’re sort of a ‘we don’t count’ district,” said Andrea Rosanoff, chair of the Puna Citizens for Affordable and Sustainable Property Insurance. “We’re always being written off, even though we’re the fastest-growing district in the state, and the last affordable place to live.”
Rosanoff said HB 2056 is still a useful bill in the long run, explaining that HPIA’s reinsurance rates have been disproportionately high since 2014 and eventually dominoed into the current crisis.
“I think it’s a good idea for the state to study what that state-run reinsurance would mean for the state, for the economy,” Rosanoff said.
“But for people living here, it’s not looking good,” Rosanoff went on. “It’s not good for the stability of the community.”
While Ilagan was remorseful that most of his bills have failed, he said he will try again next year.
He added that this year’s state budget is tight, with Lahaina wildfire relief projects and a $150 million bill for retroactive hazard pay for public school workers during COVID-19 eating up a large chunk of available funds, but hopes next year might have more room for Puna.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
RE: Council Resolution on LZ1 & LZ2 High Cost of Home Insurance - Punatang - 08-18-2024
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/08/18/hawaii-news/no-relief-in-sight-for-insurance-crisis-in-lava-zones-1-2/
No relief in sight for insurance crisis in Lava Zones 1, 2
By MICHAEL BRESTOVANSKY Hawaii Tribune-Herald|Aug. 18th, 2024
State Rep. Greggor Ilagan of Puna said that, all things considered, the insurance market for condo owners statewide is even more dire than for lower Puna residents: At least Puna residents can still get coverage through HPIA, expensive though it is. Condo owners previously didn’t even have that luxury, he said.
But even with the proclamation opening HPIA to them, condo owners and associations will still have to deal with high rates through the HPIA, the same as lower Puna residents, Ilagan said.
“I knew that, once (the proclamation) happens, everyone will wonder what’s going on with Lava Zones 1 and 2,” Ilagan said. “And I’ve been saying, once there’s any subsidies on the table, then I’ll be the first to go after them.”
Ilagan had introduced a raft of bills during the previous legislative session to alleviate the Puna insurance crisis, some of which involved state insurance subsidies. All those bills were shot down, but Ilagan said he’d try again next session.
“Next year is going to be the year of insurance,” Ilagan predicted.
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RE: Council Resolution on LZ1 & LZ2 High Cost of Home Insurance - MyManao - 08-18-2024
Ilagan had introduced a raft of bills during the previous legislative session to alleviate the Puna insurance crisis, some of which involved state insurance subsidies. All those bills were shot down, but Ilagan said he’d try again next session.“Next year is going to be the year of insurance,” Ilagan predicted.
Yeah, well, what do they call doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results? Not to say I don't wish him all the luck in the world but that there's something else going on and how we are going to insure folks comes later, after the more basic questions of what are we going to do in the first place are answered.
I think there's a change coming to the way we, collectively, think of LZ1 and 2 that will trickled down from the USGS publishing a new Lava Zone Hazard map, That is the only way the state and county will be able to officially act, i.e., to respond to something tangible that itself is neutral. To that end..
From Big Island Video News..
A State Senate resolution asking federal officials to update the lava-flow hazard map of Hawaiʻi island is advancing at the Capitol. SCR3 SD1 which (since this report) passed and has been adopted and concludes..
BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Thirty-second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2024, the House of Representatives concurring, that the United States Geological Survey is urged to conduct topographical surveys, particularly within lava-flow hazard Zones 1 and 2, to update USGS Miscellaneous Field Studies Map 2193; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the updated surveys are requested to include more detailed assessments of risk based on elevation differences within each lava-flow hazard zone included in the existing version of USGS Miscellaneous Field Studies Map 2193; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a certified copy of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Director of the United States Geological Survey.
All's to say representative Ilagan doesn't seem to be hip to what's happening.. as this issue works its way through the system. Yes, it's an issue, and yes folks need to pay attention, but the insurance debacle is but a small part of a much bigger beast.. civil planning in hazardous areas, and specifically how do we live harmoniously with our active volcanoes?
RE: Council Resolution on LZ1 & LZ2 High Cost of Home Insurance - Punatang - 08-19-2024
...urged to conduct... and ...surveys are requested...
Thems beggin' words. It would be nice if the state could compel the Federal to do it's bidding. But it can not. If you watch the meeting video, https://www.facebook.com/100060751568908...740793790/ (about 54 minutes in on the timeline) the USGS guy made it abundantly clear that their maps were never intended to, and do not, assess risk. The USGS maps define Hazzards. Risk is a different animal and The House shows it's obtuseness by conflating the two. In fact, Probability of risk is what insurers are really supposed to be focused on here according to USGS guy. The push-back from USGS at the meeting was real. The gist is that the insurance companies never had any real right or valid reason to base anything they do on these maps. So the real solution may be to force insurers to divorce their factoring from USGS products and rely on their own proprietary risk assessments. This opens avenues of competition (it's a Capitalism thing =) ). It will be a cold day deep beneath Kiluea before USGS complies with the concurrences, urges, and requests of our wheel spinning State House IMHO. I think they know that. But hey, why not make it look like they are really doing something?