WASHINGTON, D.C. – In case you missed it, Florida-based insurance association, the Federal Association for Insurance Reform (FAIR), wrote an opinion piece for The Invading Sea, a collaboration of 26 Florida news organizations focused on environmental issues and climate change, urging Congress to pass Senator Rick Scott’s recently introduced Flood Insurance Consumer Choice Act and Flood Insurance Transparency Act. With the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) broken and buried in debt, Senator Scott is fighting for reforms to ensure that the private flood insurance market has quality, affordable options for families, especially in coastal areas prone to flooding like Florida.

In the piece, President of the Federal Association for Insurance Reform Paul Handerhan, wrote, “Flooding is the most common and costly natural disaster in the United States. Flood-related disasters have cost more than $850 billion in damages and losses since 2000, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts.

To make matters worse, the frequency and severity of flood-related events are predicted to grow over the next several decades. In fact, a recent report from the First Street Foundation estimates that in just 30 years the average estimated annual loss from flooding in the United States will be $32.3 billion a year.

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Unfortunately, consumers are often hindered from realizing these potential benefits or from even knowing their potential flood risk. One barrier is the NFIP’s ‘continuous coverage’ provision that requires a property to keep an active NFIP policy to remain eligible for certain premium discounts.

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Another issue is the lack of publicly available data about an individual property’s flood risk and flood claims history. In many states, consumers can purchase a property without any access to the property’s history of flooding.

Increased transparency would allow potential home buyers to make more informed decisions and increase awareness about the importance of buying flood insurance. To address these two problems, Florida Sen. Rick Scott recently introduced the Flood Insurance Consumer Choice Act and the Flood Insurance Transparency Act. FAIR urges Congress to pass these reforms.

All that being said, the NFIP is an incredibly important program that provides valuable flood mapping data, building code requirements, and is a lifeline to its millions of policyholders. But, the NFIP alone cannot cover all of the U.S. flood risk. It must work with the emerging private flood insurance market.

Thus, FAIR urges Congress to consider ways, such as Scott’s bills, to support the private flood insurance market.”

Read the full article in The Invading Sea HERE.

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