Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

Until the Federal government gets out of the guaranteed flood insurance business-- which is unlikely to happen soon, as there would be fierce political blowback-- you will always be able to get flood insurance supported by taxpayers.



Federal Flood Insurance has had zero net subsidy from 1968 to 2004. While covering up to 5.5 million homes in the US. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Flood_Insurance_Progr...

Currently it's 25 billion in debt, but that's cheap in terms of federal programs of that magnitude (~15 $ per home per year). Further, the net economic gain from allowing people to build in slightly at risk areas has easily been worth 25 billion over that time period. Consider, without some form of insurance you could not build downstream of major dam's as the low risk of them failing puts huge areas at risk.


So the program broke even for 36 years, then started running up debt in the early 2000s...because of more severe weather.

As sea levels rise and weather gets more severe, this program will become much more expensive.


It's really hard to tell how much of the last 15 years is unusual vs the new normal.

Presumably things can be adjusted for with slightly increased premiums as it's still very close to break even for now.




Consider applying for YC's Spring batch! Applications are open till Feb 11.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: