Life Insurance

ORANGE BEACH -- State lawmakers and regulators said at a property insurance forum Thursday night that they favor increasing the options Alabama's coastal residents have when seeking coverage over placing mandates on private market insurers.

Florida, with its state insurer of last resort on the life support of frequent taxpayer bailouts, and Mississippi, with regulatory edicts and generous juries that have driven insurers from the state, are not examples Alabama should follow, the state officials repeatedly told an audience of about 120 at the Orange Beach Adult Activity Center.

"The perspective of the (Alabama Insurance) Department has been all along that we believe in the marketplace and feel like it's the place to solve the problems with time," said Assistant Insurance Commissioner Ragan Ingram. "We've seen what's happened in Florida. ... The taxpayers of Florida are the insurance companies of the state, and the state could go bankrupt if a major storm or series of storms hit that state."

State Sen. Bradley Byrne, R-Montrose, said there are two routes the state can take to tackle skyrocketing premiums and scare availability: To place mandates on insurers and hope they don't flee, or to work with the private sector while drumming up alternative plans to expand the market.

Expand the type of policies that newly legalized captive insurance companies groups that facilitate a sort of self insurance -- can cover to include residential property and automobiles.

Ingram also said that the state Insurance Department is studying a new South Carolina policy, in which residents are given tax credits for improving their homes' ability to withstand storms.

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