UPCOMING EVENT: Learning From Protection Gap Entities Around The World
Webinar: Research for Practice: Learning from Protection Gap Entities around the World | September 15th at 4 PM ET | Sponsored by Insurance For Good | RSVP here!
PGEs are nonprofits that manage disaster insurance protection gaps and support post-disaster reconstruction. Researcher Paula Jarzabkowski will discuss PGEs that are actively working to include risk mitigation and climate adaptation into insurance affordability and availability.
SPOTLIGHT: Oklahoma AG Takes on Big Insurance
In Oklahoma, the sixth most expensive insurance state, homeowners pay more than twice the national average for coverage and roughly a quarter of their claims are denied. Now the state is taking action to hold the industry accountable, and to ensure homeowners don’t have to fight corporate giants on their own just to receive the coverage they paid for.
A new Revolving Door Project piece by Kenny Stancil published in The American Prospect lays out Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s lawsuits against Allstate and State Farm, which allege the companies systematically denied or reduced wind and hail claims while using restrictive claims practices to boost profits.
As the Consumer Federation of America points out, Drummond’s swift action contrasts with state Insurance Commissioner Glen Mulready’s “hands off” approach; Mulready hasn’t even released the findings of an investigation into claims handling that he promised to complete months ago.
Photo Credit: New York Times
ACROSS THE COUNTRY
Wildfires Are Taking Homes and Insurance Is Leaving People Behind
For many families living through wildfires this summer, the insurance crisis is turning the loss of a home into a financial catastrophe they can’t recover from. In Colorado, Aspen Acres residents are returning to destroyed homes to salvage what they can and say goodbye. “You were a good house. We had a good life here,” said Tara Stosek, adding that she and her husband thought their metal roof and concrete basement would protect them.
In Idaho, where the Big Grass Fire has just been contained after burning almost 600,000 acres, changing weather patterns have pushed the state into the wildfire-risk top ten, and rates have jumped more than 50% since 2020. In Boise’s Ada County, more than a quarter of buildings are “directly exposed” to wildfire risk, and 50,000 new wildfire-exposed homes have been built statewide since 1990.
All the climate-driven risks fueling these fires are being intensified by fossil fuel pollution, but Big Oil is raking in the profits and insurance industry profits are steeply up, too — largely driven by investing premiums in fossil fuels — while homeowners and wildfire survivors are left to pick up the pieces.
Photo Credit: Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette
IN THE STATES
Texas: Gov. Greg Abbott is pushing the state insurance department to require insurers to offer discounts to homeowners who install fortified, storm-resistant roofs. This would put Texas in line with Alabama, Colorado, California, and other states that require insurance companies to give back some of the benefits of resilience investments to homeowners in the form of lower premiums. But even if this happens, it’s just one of the many changes needed to fix the state’s broken insurance system.
Jayson O’Neill, spokesperson for Unlocking America’s Future: “[Texas] families are watching premiums climb 79 percent while insurers hide behind credit scores and pricing algorithms…. If Abbott is serious about affordability, he will fund the roof grants, close the credit score loophole in his price optimization ban, and stop insurers from denying valid claims and accusing homeowners of fraud. Anything less is more talk, not action.”
Illinois: As severe storms and flooding plague the Chicago area, homeowners are learning whether their insurance policies actually cover the risks they face. Recent flooding in Kane County forced homeowners to confront the gaps, which left them facing significant storm-related costs. Aurora City Alderman Jonathan Nunez: “There was this disconnect in understanding what insurance will and won’t cover.”
CALIFORNIA CORNER
California lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom are racing to overhaul the state’s wildfire liability system before the legislative session ends Monday night. Utilities like PG&E have organized under the banner “Wildfire Victims First,” but the proposed changes would limit compensation for wildfire victims while giving utilities greater protection from liability. Fire survivors are calling them ”window dressing around a burning house.”
Survivor Will Abrams on the proposed “fast pay” system: “Certainly get me money fast, but if that means I have to forgo rights in the future and can’t go after every red cent that I’m owed from this perpetrator of this fire, that is not a tradeoff we should be forcing upon victims.”
RESOURCES
Ceres: The 2026 Progress Report: Climate Risk Reporting in the Insurance Sector
Center for Climate Integrity: How Big Oil is Fueling the Insurance Crisis And Why State Policymakers Should Act
Climate and Community Institute: Insurance: The Hidden Market Force Threatening Affordable Housing
Consumer Federation of America and Climate and Community Institute: Penalized: The Hidden Cost of Credit Score in Homeowners Insurance Premiums
Dave Jones, Yale Law Journal: The Uninsurable Future: The Climate Threat to Property Insurance, and How to Stop It
Insurify: The Next Insurance Crisis: Hailstorms Are Quickly and Quietly Driving Up Home Insurance Costs
Pew Research Center: 71% of U.S. homeowners say their home insurance costs have gone up
Public Citizen and the Revolving Door Project: Mapping the Home Insurance Crisis
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