HM 541

1	House Memorial
2	A memorial to the Congress of the United States urging
3	Congress to support a National Catastrophe Insurance
4	Program.
5
6	WHEREAS, during the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons, the
7	State of Florida was devastated by eight hurricanes and four
8	tropical storms, causing approximately $35 billion in estimated
9	gross probable insurance losses, and
10	WHEREAS, the hurricanes from the 2004 and 2005 hurricane
11	seasons have produced high winds, coastal storm surges,
12	torrential rainfalls, and flooding resulting in significant
13	damage to Florida and the Gulf Coast states, which has resulted
14	in displacement of policyholders from their dwellings, loss of
15	personal belongings and contents, closing of businesses and
16	financial institutions, and temporary loss of employment and has
17	created numerous health and safety issues within our local
18	communities, and
19	WHEREAS, in 1992, Hurricane Andrew resulted in
20	approximately $20.8 billion in insured losses and was previously
21	the costliest catastrophe in the United States, but Hurricane
22	Katrina alone left the Gulf Coast states with an estimated loss
23	of approximately $35 billion, and
24	WHEREAS, natural disasters continually threaten communities
25	across the United States with extreme weather conditions that
26	pose an immediate danger to the lives, property, and security of
27	the residents of those communities, and
28	WHEREAS, the insurance industry, state officials, and
29	consumer groups have been striving to develop solutions to
30	insure mega-catastrophic risks, because hurricanes, earthquakes,
31	tornadoes, typhoons, floods, wildfires, ice storms, and other
32	natural catastrophes continue to affect policyholders across the
33	United States, and
34	WHEREAS, on November 16 and 17, 2005, insurance
35	commissioners from Florida, California, Illinois, and New York
36	convened a summit to devise a national catastrophe insurance
37	plan which would more effectively spread insurance risks and
38	help mitigate the tremendous financial damage survivors contend
39	with following such catastrophes, NOW, THEREFORE,
40
41	Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
42
43	That the Congress of the United States is urged to support
44	a National Catastrophe Insurance Program. Policyholders require
45	a rational insurance mechanism for responding to the economic
46	losses resulting from catastrophic events. The risk of
47	catastrophes must be addressed through a public-private
48	partnership involving individuals, private industry, local and
49	state governments, and the Federal Government. A national
50	catastrophe insurance program is necessary to promote personal
51	responsibility among policyholders; support strong building
52	codes, development plans, and other mitigation tools; maximize
53	the risk-bearing capacity of the private markets; and provide
54	quantifiable risk management through the Federal Government. The
55	program should encompass:
56	(1)  Providing consumers with a private market residential
57	insurance program that provides all-perils protection.
58	(2)  Promoting personal responsibility through mitigation;
59	promoting the retrofitting of existing housing stock; and
60	providing individuals with the ability to manage their own
61	disaster savings accounts that, similar to health savings
62	accounts, accumulate on a tax-advantaged basis for the purpose
63	of paying for mitigation enhancements and catastrophic losses.
64	(3)  Creating tax-deferred insurance company catastrophe
65	reserves to benefit policyholders. These tax-deferred reserves
66	would build up over time and only be eligible to be used to pay
67	for future catastrophic losses.
68	(4)  Enhancing local and state government's role in
69	establishing and maintaining effective building codes,
70	mitigation education, and land use management; promoting state
71	emergency management, preparedness, and response; and creating
72	state or multistate regional catastrophic risk financing
73	mechanisms such as the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund.
74	(5)  Creating a national catastrophe financing mechanism
75	that would provide a quantifiable level of risk management and
76	financing for mega-catastrophes; maximizing the risk-bearing
77	capacity of the private markets; and allowing for aggregate risk
78	pooling of natural disasters funded through sound risk-based
79	premiums paid in correct proportion by all policyholders in the
80	United States.
81	BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
82	dispatched to the President of the United States, to the
83	President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the
84	United States House of Representatives, and to each member of
85	the Florida delegation to the United States Congress.

CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.