Miss. Insurance Candidate Chaney Supports Multi-Peril Policy

Republican nominee for Mississippi insurance commissioner, Sen. Mike Chaney, R-Vicksburg, formally endorsed U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor’s, R-Miss., Multiple Peril Insurance Act (H.R.920).

The MPIA would allow property owners to purchase wind and flood coverage in a single policy.

“I’ve openly supported the need for federal legislation to address the insurance crisis since the beginning of this campaign,” said Chaney.” I continue to believe that the multi-peril insurance proposal now before Congress is the best hope of providing relief to homeowners and small business owners on the Gulf Coast.”

H.R.920 requires that the multiple peril insurance programs be actuarially sound and pay for themselves. This program should also result in savings in future federal disaster assistance, according to Chaney.

After Hurricane Katrina, the federal government spent in excess of $20 billion in housing assistance grants, rental assistance, temporary trailer housing, subsidized disaster loans, casualty loss tax deductions, and other assistance for property losses that were underinsured or were uncovered, Chaney said.

H.R.920 will collect premiums to cover many of those expenses , without needing lawyers, engineers and adjusters to distinguish wind damage from water damage, Chaney added. Also, the improved insurance coverage would speed up the economic recovery of disaster areas, he maintained.

“Too many homeowners and business are not rebuilding on the Gulf Coast because of the lack of available and affordable insurance” Chaney said. “If you can’t get insurance, you can’t finance it and if you can’t finance it you can’t build it. If homeowners and business can’t rebuild, you lose the tax base, if you lose the tax base, you lose the community…it’s that simple!”

Chaney praised the National Association of Homebuilders and the Gulf Coast Business Council for joining in this “by-partisan effort to support H.R.920 which is vital to the economic recovery of the Mississippi Gulf Coast.”

Chaney is a member of the Senate Insurance Committee and one of the architects of the 2007 Wind Pool Insurance bill.

Source: Mike Chaney Campaign office