THE VIEW INBOX
JOE RAEDLE—GETTY IMAGES
AS HURRICANE SEASON
approached, Florida law-
makers in May raced to ad-
dress a crucial gap in the
state’s coastal defenses:
property insurance. In-
surance costs in the state
increased about 25% in
the past year, according to
the Insurance Information
Institute. Rampant litiga-
tion and fraud are part of
the problem. So is climate
change. Rising hurricane
losses in recent decades
drove most national prop-
erty insurers out of Flor-
ida; they were replaced by
small local players, which
are more vulnerable to the
whims of the reinsurance
market (insurance for insur-
ance companies). Storms
also create opportunities for
bad actors to take advantage
of the system, like contrac-
tors looking for roofs to fi x
that may or may not have
been damaged, and then
charging insurance compa-
nies. “When it’s storms and
fraud, which is what we’ve
had over the last few years,”
says Charles Nyce, asso-
ciate director of the Cen-
ter for Risk Management
Education and Research at
Florida State University,Climate Is EverythingBy Alejandro de la Garza
STAFF WRITER, CLIMATE“[companies] can’t survive.”
Damage from extreme
weather events is also jack-
ing up insurance costs in
other parts of the U.S.,
like the Gulf states and△
Damage in Perdido Key, Fla.,
after Hurricane Sally in 2020California. At the same time,
the industry is undermining
climate policy, according to
think tank Infl uenceMap,
and underwriting fossil-
fuel projects that could in-
crease risks to homes they
insure. On May 26, Florida
approved a $2 billion state-
backed reinsurance fund