Nov. 15, 2005 - MEETING OF THE MINDS

President Bush has declared forty-one disasters since the first of the year, from Maine ice melts to California mudslides to Hurricane Katrina. Over the next two days, Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty and his counterparts from three other states will host insurance industry professionals at a San Francisco hotel in an attempt to draft aproposal for a federal insurance catastrophe fund that can win approval on Capitol Hill. However, this latest effort (other attempts have failed to garner much support in Congress) has drawn only limited interest, with just 15 state insurance departments sending representatives. Legislators from states with less costly disasters question if such a fund makes sense for their taxpayers, contending that people who purchase residences along earthquake fault lines or in or near coastal areas do so at their own risk.

Source: St. Petersburg Times (FL) (11/15/05); James, Joni
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