01-29-2024, 03:51 PM
Not quite Capatalism at the Capitol:
https://www.staradvertiser.com/2024/01/2...icy-costs/
HAWAII NEWS
https://www.staradvertiser.com/2024/01/2...icy-costs/
HAWAII NEWS
Bills aim to assist Hawaii property owners with policy costs
- By Dan Nakaso
- Today
- [i]Updated 12:20 am[/i]
- [i]A package of House bills would help property owners buy insurance in Hawaii’s most high-risk zones, including those in Puna’s riskiest lava zones and survivors of the Maui wildfires who also lost homes.
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- State Rep. Greggor Ilagan (D, Hawaiian Paradise Park-Hawaiian Beaches-Leilani Estates) has introduced 10 bills ahead of one insurer’s plan to exit Hawaii’s property insurance market this summer.
- Most of the bills are specific to Puna’s Lava Zones 1 and 2, where lava from Kilauea burst out of the ground in Leilani Estates in May 2018 before the eruption suddenly slowed, then stopped four months later. In between, 723 structures were wiped out, including an estimated 200 primary residences.
- Universal Property &Casualty, which will pull out of the Hawaii market Aug. 31, had been issuing policies for Puna’s Lava Zones 1 and 2, and some remaining insurance companies will honor existing policies, Ilagan said. But none are willing to underwrite new ones, he said.
- Other companies around Hawaii continue to issue homeowners insurance, but Universal’s pending departure means the pool of companies “is shrinking,” Ilagan said. “It’s definitely shrinking.”
- [i]Puna residents filed 152 insurance claims from the Kilauea eruption totaling $35 million, Ilagan said.
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