Pardon our oversimplification, but the basic way insurance works is that many people pay in a little at a time and build up funds to cover the costs of eventual sicknesses, property damage, etc. That way the risk is spread around, and the financial burden is not too great on any one person. Obviously, such a system would be overwhelmed by costs if people didn’t buy coverage until they got ill or had a car wreck or their home was damaged by a storm.
But that is what the Obama administration is encouraging people to do where flood insurance is concerned.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is going around to areas along the Missouri River that are expected to flood in the coming days and urging residents to buy policies under the national flood insurance program just before the rising water hits. The agency is also urging insurance agents to sell the last-minute policies.
What total irresponsibility!
The time to buy flood insurance is not in the moments when it becomes apparent that a flood is on the way! With the federal government subsidizing the policies in question, that procrastination saddles taxpayers with the cost of potentially huge claims by those who waited until the last minute to get coverage.
Insurance agents in the states where flooding is taking place say that new flood policies generally have a 30-day waiting period before they take effect. But FEMA officials hint that they’re going to try to find provisions under the “complicated rules” of the flood insurance program to cover at least part of the damage anyway, The Associated Press reported.
We sympathize with anyone whose home or business is flooded, but it is grossly irresponsible for the government to urge people to buy taxpayer-subsidized insurance immediately before an expected disaster hits.