peter stern: Texas #1 in Costly Insurance Premiums!

from peter stern ...

While I've been stating this fact for years, it's finally in the limelight!

Forbes Magazine notes Texas the highest cost of homeowner insurance in the nation!!!

Here's what the article had to say:

No. 1: Texas
Average Annual Premium: $1,362

Thanks to hurricanes, tornadoes, hail, windstorms and earthquakes, living in Texas can cost you an arm and a leg in more ways than one. Rates are going down thanks to 2003 regulations, though, and the rest of the country is quickly catching up.

First of all, those are the "reasons" the insurance industry and the Texas Department of Insurance give, but the truth is different. BTW, rates are NOT going down they are stabilizing. Often companies cut coverage and maintain the same cost. Secondly "rates" are different from insurance premiums. Thirdly, the main reason Texas is #1 in premium costs is that lax insurance legislation and state officials "looking the other way" enabled the industry to double premiums overnight! Lastly, no one has done anything about it in 2 years!!!

I continue to write on this issue and those in charge of our government pretend the issue doesn't exist.

Maybe now that Forbes Magazine put Texas in the limelight as #1 people will get tired of it and contact officials to get after the insurance industry to lower homeowner insurance premiums?

Gov. Rick Perry, Texas Department of Insurance Commissioner Mike Geeslin and most of the insurance industry are lying to the public about the reasons for such high premiums.

Did Texas homeowners forget about their doubled insurance premiums?

Time to rein in home insurance premiums!

We need to ask ourselves, "Why?"

Three years ago with Gov. Rick Perry, then Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) Commissioner Jose Montemayor, and legislators "looking the other way," lax insurance legislation permitted the industry to double overnight the premiums paid by Texas homeowners.

At that time and during the previous several years, the insurance industry had been experiencing a hard market and was losing revenue; we were told it was due to excessive claims due to storms, winds, flooding, hail, and mold. It had called upon the state informally to help with correcting the market, but few listened to industry pleas.

As in many previous years of „hard markets,‰ the insurance industry elected to act on the problem without waiting any longer for government interaction on its behalf. Virtually overnight, it then over-corrected the market by doubling home insurance premiums.

In some instances, the industry decreased the coverage and still increased the premiums significantly.

The reaction of homeowners was disbelief and then anger. They contacted the offices of the governor, TDI, and various legislators. They were told publicly by Perry and Montemayor that by the next year, the insurance industry would refund up to 14 percent of the increased
premiums.

To date, that has never occurred. Homeowners must have forgotten the promises made by Perry and Geeslin!

So, now it's been 3 years of insurance over-compensation and profiteering and premiums are still doubled!

The governor and state officials continue to permit the insurance industry in Texas to maintain the highest home insurance premiums anywhere else in the nation.

Currently, we are nearing the end of the 4th fiscal business quarter of year 2007 and are in a „ofter market. The industry has been reaping substantial profits for the past several years and is still content to keep premiums at this highest ever level!

Despite high revenues, there is no sign of legislators providing more oversight and/or regulation on the insurance market, nor is the industry on its own considering lowering the premiums of home insurance to a more reasonable amount.

Periodically and when public opinion and discontent require it, Perry gives the issue some lip service and leaves it up to the Legislature to consider, but no one seriously acts on behalf of overburdened Texas homeowners. With ever-increasing property values and taxes, home insurance is a close second as the cause of the record number of foreclosure throughout the state.

Apparently, unless Texans pound on the gubernatorial and legislative doors, communicating via phone and letters that home insurance relief is needed now, no one will do anything about it and Texas homeowners will continue to pay the highest premium costs anywhere in the nation. We can't depend on the governor, legislators, current TDI Commissioner Mike Geeslin, or the insurance industry to offer homeowners relief. To them, the sweet smell of profits overrides the stench of decay from the American Dream becoming a nightmare for most of us.

We either can remain the docile sheep officials want us to be, or we can move on correcting this unacceptable series of insurance events.
DEMAND REDUCTIONS IN PREMIUM COSTS WITHOUT REDUCING COVERAGE!!!

Contacts:

Gov. Rick Perry: http://www.governor.state.tx.us/contact


Lt. Gov. Dewhurst: http://www.ltgov.state.tx.us/Contact/?PHPSESSID=5b095f20d41bd4a2678f462a5bd16830


Texas Senators: http://www.senate.state.tx.us/75r/senate/Members.htm



House of Reps: http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/welcome.php


TDI Commissioner Mike Geeslin: mike.geeslin@tdi.state.tx.us

Peter Stern of Driftwood, Texas, a former director of information services, university professor and public school administrator, is a political writer well-known and published frequently throughout the Texas community and nationwide. He is a disabled Vietnam veteran and holds three post-graduate degrees. You may contact him at pstern@austin.rr.com