Posted On: October 10, 2007, 3:00 pm CDT

Posted By: Tom

The flaw in the entire "coastal zone" concept is that it has to be based upon the belief that the insurance industry is unfairly inflating prices. You can't "negotiate" lower rates simply because you have more exposure units. The coast will always be the coast, and the storm exposure is what it is. Besides, let's look at what's happened in these states - the Missisippi attorney general threatens criminal prosecution simply because insurers try to read the plain language of their form? Suits are filed that try to reverse well-reasoned federal court decisions on the flood exclusion - language approved in all states for decades, where literally dozens of judicial decisions have come to the same result?

In the end, Louisiana is a small state, with an archaic legal system, a history of political corruption and active rate suppression, and large exposures to natural disaster. The only outcome from trying to "force" the industry to do anything is to encourage all insurers to levae the state.