Official: Texas Coastal Insurer is Unsustainable

The state insurance commissioner says that the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association is not currently sustainable. She says it likely won’t be until Texas spreads the costs of risks associated with major hurricane strikes beyond just Texans living in coastal areas.

Texas Department of Insurance Commissioner Eleanor Kitzman told a special Texas House and Senate joint committee on Wednesday that simply raising insurance rates in high-risk areas was not the only solution.

She added, though, that coastal rates remain too low.

Instead, Kitzman said lawmakers need to decide how broadly they want to spread the cost of risks.

The association is a nonprofit, state-supervised insurer of last resort for people who can’t get private property insurance in coastal areas.

Risks there are often so high that private insurers won’t write policies.