Tag: Rebecca Mowbray

Insurance costs hit home, for all of us – including the good neighbor and LA Insurance Commissioner Donelon, too

“One thing is certain.  The more we all spend on insurance, that’s less money that we spend on other things, like cars, and refrigerators, and clothing.  Until the problem is solved, our recovery will never be complete…”

WLOX reporter Doug Walker hit the road for a week in January to learn more about the insurance situation and found Insurance costs hit home, for all of us.

During my travels, I met a widow whose insurance bill has climbed from $2000 a year in 2004 to more than $7000 now.  Another homeowner was told his insurance was going up from $2400 a year to $6300.  He finally got a policy through an independent broker with Lloyd’s of London for $4000.  The list goes on and on.

Indeed, the list does go on and on and, as Walker points out, insurance cost is not just a Mississippi issue.  State Farm found that out yesterday and Rebecca Mowbray caught the story for the Times Picayune – Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon rejects 19 percent statewide rate increase request by State Farm.

“This is an out-and-out rejection,” Donelon said. “We’re so far apart, we don’t feel like there’s a reasonable chance for compromise.”

State Farm, which is free to submit a new request, said that it was stunned and disappointed by the rejection…

If the request had been granted, State Farm would have been able to collect an additional $67.6 million from its customers in Louisiana. (emphasis added)

State Farm’s requested increase would have pulled $67,600,000 from Louisiana’s economy.  Calculated for the items listed in Walker’s post,  there would be  2380 fewer new cars purchased or 56,333 new refrigerators sitting in stores – or, worse yet,  the 781,403 school-age Who Dat’s would not be wearing a replica of Drew Brees’ Super Bowl jersey.

Donelon’s rejection is the culmination of a battle that has been brewing over the past year over State Farm’s use of a hurricane computer model that seems to project a need for much higher rates than its competitors. Continue reading “Insurance costs hit home, for all of us – including the good neighbor and LA Insurance Commissioner Donelon, too”

Dean Starkman – SunHerald

Dean Starkman’s very fine writing about the insurance industry’s response to Hurricane Katrina, Insurance Transparency Project blog, continues to be an invaluable resource for SLABBED.  In fact, it was my search for something he’d written that led me to the Columbia Journalism Review where I found (much to my delight)  SunHerald’s Lee, Times-Pic’s Mowbray: Still on it

One of the true pleasures of reporting on the insurance industry’s response, or non-response, to Hurricane Katrina was meeting, and reading the reporting of, the principal Gulf-area papers’ reporters on the insurance angle, Rebecca Mowbray of the Times-Picayune and Anita Lee of the SunHerald of Gulfport and Biloxi, Miss.

It is heartwarming to see them still on the case, four years later. It is heartbreaking to read what they are reporting.

Mowbray: “Report dubs FEMA poor watchdog”

That one, from September 22, is about how the government fails to supervise the private insurers who administer the federal flood program under a “private-public partnership” (always a good idea to check your wallet when you read those words):

FireShot capture #104 - 'SunHerald's Lee, Times-Pic's Mowbray_ Still on it _ CJR' - www_cjr_org_the_audit_sunheralds_lee_timespics_mowbr_php

That’s for expenses, people. Insurers under this program bear no risk. What financial product comes with a 66% load? Continue reading “Dean Starkman – SunHerald”

Policyholder rights – a movement in our midst

I doubt there will be a comparable day of national day of celebration – or even a date that would have related significance – but I do believe there will come a time when policyholders are treated fairly without a post-event legal battle – and, in that regard, we in Mississippi, once again, have a movement in our midst.

Like all movements, this fight for policyholder rights has had its defining moments, its heroes and its victims – many  unrecognized and even more to come, no doubt, before victory is won.

One of those unrecognized moments may prove to be the recent Louisiana court decision reported by Rebecca Mowbray: Appeals court finds that it was legal for homeowner to file suit after deadline.

A state appeals court opinion issued Jan. 7 says that it was legal for New Orleans homeowner Brenda Pitts to have filed a lawsuit against Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp. months after the deadline for initiating litigation because a class action lawsuit had stopped the clock from running out. Continue reading “Policyholder rights – a movement in our midst”

Covering the Coverers: Mowbray Wins Another Award, So Does Bloomberg

I saw in yesterday’s Times Picayune Rebecca Mowbray has won another journalism award for excellence in covering insurance issues raised by Katrina and Rita. Earlier this year she won the Enterprise Award for her article  “Same house. Same repairs. Same insurer. Why different prices?”. Now she is recognized for the totality of her work in winning the 2008 Award for Excellence in Economic Reporting, which recognizes coverage of policies and markets.

“Rebecca Mowbray caught the private insurance industry red-handed,” said Newsweek’s Rich Thomas, chairman of the panel of judges. “She and The Times-Picayune prove that insurers unfairly dumped tens of millions of dollars of their own wind- and rain-damage losses in the Katrina hurricane onto a gullible government.”

Thomas added that Mowbray’s stories “helped force the federal government to revise its own procedures to prevent another private raid on the public treasury in future disasters.”

The award will be presented Tuesday at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

That is certainly one way of putting it Mr Thomas. Good to see others also see it.

Meantime The Bloomberg piece The Insurance Hoax won a prestigious New York press club award Continue reading “Covering the Coverers: Mowbray Wins Another Award, So Does Bloomberg”

Enterprise Award Winner Rebecca Mowbray on Claims Dumping

It was brought to my attention by our friend from Louisiana Mr Cominglatersooner that Rebecca Mowbray won the prestigious Enterprise Award given to recognize excellence in business journalism.

Rebecca Mowbray, a business writer for The Times-Picayune, has received an award from the leading organization for business journalists.

The Society of American Business Editors and Writers announced Thursday that Mowbray won an Enterprise Award, which recognizes stories that take a broad look at a trend or development. Her entry was “Same House, Same Repairs,” a story that examined how some insurance companies shift costs to the National Flood Insurance Program.

Indeed tracking down the original story “Same house. Same repairs. Same insurer. Why different prices?” and its reference to the Weiss case lead me all over the internet as the $2.8 million dollar verdict was seen as a stunning example of Katrina insurance bad faith. It also lead me to David Rossmiller’s Insurance turned Dickie Scruggs coverage blog and some of the most prime examples of why he is regarded as an insurance shill by lawyers that actually litigate wind-water cases and those of us actually located in Katrina ground zero. Continue reading “Enterprise Award Winner Rebecca Mowbray on Claims Dumping”