Re:After a $14B Upgrade, New Orleans’ Levees Are Sinking
by zdragnar on Thursday April 18, 2019 @10:55PM
(#19696730)
The premiums for flood insurance can be pretty steep, and I would be extremely surprised if the fund operated at a loss. In my case, the annual premium is a little over 1% of the covered value, even though the historical record high (back in the 1960's) would probably only require about 10% of the total coverage purchased to replace (in this case, mostly from a few out buildings that are a little lower than the house itself).
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Re:After a $14B Upgrade, New Orleans’ Levees Are Sinking
by bronson on Thursday April 18, 2019 @11:32PM
(#19696898)
Then you're extremely surprised.
"Currently, the NFIP’s debt totals $24.6 billion, nearly six times the program’s total annual receipts of $4.3 billion"
https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/115th-congress-2017-2018/re...
And Planet Money, as always, has a great take:
https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2017/09/29/554603161/epis...
Re:After a $14B Upgrade, New Orleans’ Levees Are Sinking
by zdragnar on Friday April 19, 2019 @02:16AM
(#19697453)
After doing some more digging, it turns out that roughly 20% of NFIP policies are subsidized, and the up-to $30b debt was authorized by Congress in 2012 due to the shortfalls.
80% of the policies (the non-subsidized ones) are thought to be actuarially sound, barring unintended consequences of out-of-date flood maps.
So, I'm not terribly surprised. Were it operating like a traditional insurer, it might even be doing fine (especially if it had some other reforms such as eliminating or having better oversight over WYO policies).