HONOLULU (KHON2) — Insurance companies nationwide are hiking rates to keep up with escalating risks for more frequent, fierce climate-driven disasters like hurricanes and wildfires.
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KHON2 met with Hawaii’s Acting Insurance Commissioner, Jerry Bump, to see how bad it is in the islands.
“It really varies from carrier to carrier. Some have been more proactive with rate increases on a smaller scale. From 10 to 15 percent per year,” said Bump.
As rates grow, coverage shrinks from some providers — none of whom have pulled out of the Hawaii market completely nor cut off whole neighborhoods like what happened to many in Palisades, Calif. just before January’s disaster.
“So there may be individuals who get nonrenewal notices because the carrier hasn’t pulled out of the market. It’s still writing in other areas, but maybe it’s limiting the type of structure it wants to write or avoid areas that are in flood zones.”
The Insurance Division’s Online Premium Comparison Guides may be complicated to decipher, but they show consumers how much prices can vary between dozens of regulated carriers for the same coverage.
It’s meant to help homeowners, condo owners and even renters shop around.
“We’re looking very closely at rate filings, scrutinizing those working with insurers to hopefully minimize those rate increases that they’re filing for,” Bump added.
But a whole bunch of coverage happens outside the state’s kuleana, especially condo associations, which are layers of coverage that regulators cannot control.
“They turn to what we call the surplus lines market, and they are able to still find coverage, but it’s at rates that might be much higher than what we traditionally have seen.”
Governor Josh Green tasked the Hawaii Hurricane Relief Fund’s board with setting up a state-based alternative.
“We’re in an emergency, but we’re not moving like there’s an emergency,” said Senator Jarrett Keohokalole, Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection.
KHON2 has asked the commissioner if he can push the board and its contractor to hurry it up.
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‘They have laid out a timeline where they want to get policies out to the market by summer.”
We will continue to follow up on ways for the state to facilitate and for consumers to find more affordable and attainable coverage to get out of this insurance emergency.
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