Waterfront worries with flood insurance rates poised to rise
Supporters of the rate increases say they are long overdue.
“The subsidies are a problem,” said R.J. Lehmann, a senior fellow with the Washington D.C.-based R Street Institute, a free-market think tank that has advocated for flood insurance reforms.
Cheap flood insurance puts a burden on the federal government to bail out the program after a major catastrophe, Lehmann said. It also sends the wrong signal about the risks of living near water.
“There are risks associated and those risks should be charged,” he said.
…One solution might be means-tested subsidies to help poorer people afford flood insurance, Michel-Kerjan said. Subsidies also could be targeted to help certain waterfront businesses, such as the fishing industry.
Lehmann supports the idea under the right conditions.
