All of we coastal homeowner’s have been dismayed at the recent increases in homeowner and flood insurance premiums as a result of the Biggars-Waters legislation that became law in 2012, compounded by insurer actuarial calculations that may be based on dubious projections of future hurricane activity and/or sea level rise.  In fact, we members and friends of the Crystal Coast Tea Party Patriots recently instigated an e-mail campaign to urge our NC Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin and the NC Rate Bureau to engage the issue.  The United States Congress also acted to alleviate the situation with the passage earlier this month of the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act, now on President Obama’s desk awaiting his signature.

It is time now for the General Assembly to act.  Last year, state Representative Paul Tine (D-Dare) introduced a bill (HB-519) in the House that would force North Carolina insurers to be more open and specific about their actuarial computer models, and the nature of the input data they use to calculate rates.  The bill, HERE, would mandate that certain historical experience data be a part of the input data, and that rate calculations be based on two models, rather than only one.

Molly Parker of the online Wilmington Star-News wrote an informative article last week about how the focus, insofar as this bill is concerned, will shift to the Senate for the upcoming short session.  Last year the bill went dormant in the Senate Insurance Committee, but Representative Tine is hopeful that it will be voted out for consideration by the full Senate this summer.  Since Senator Norman Sanderson is Vice-Chairman of the Senate Insurance Committee, we share his optimism.

The full article by Molly Parker is HERE, and a related Star-News editorial is HERE.