Bold Solutions Needed to Solve Hawaii’s Insurance Crisis
WASHINGTON — In the opening days of his tenure as Hawaiʻi’s Insurance Commissioner, a coalition of local and national organizations have called on Scott Saiki to implement bold and immediate actions to address the insurance crisis in the state.
In a letter to the commissioner, the consumer protection, environmental, and economic justice advocacy groups called on Saiki to establish a climate risk supervision office and to strengthen protections for consumers by establishing protective measures that would ensure fair industry practices both before and after disasters strike.
“Climate change has fundamentally altered the insurance landscape,” the groups write in the letter. “Traditional models for pricing risk, regulating solvency, and ensuring availability of coverage are increasingly out of step with current and future realities. In the absence of a forward-looking, public-centered regulatory framework, Hawai’i risks a destabilizing spiral of insurer withdrawal, skyrocketing premiums, and unprotected communities, particularly those already vulnerable to environmental and economic shocks.”
The groups called on Commissioner Saiki to publish insurance data and modeling, which would allow the state to work more closely with research institutions, other states, and the insurance industry to identify systemic risks across the state and inform policy solutions to protect the residents of Hawaiʻi. The letter also highlights how Hawai’i could require insurers to play an active role in climate mitigation and resilience.
“The nation-wide insurance crisis has left Hawaiʻi at a crossroads, and Commissioner Saiki has an opportunity to lead the state down a safe pathway,” said Carly Fabian, Senior Policy Advocate with Public Citizen’s Climate Program. “Bold policy solutions in Hawai’i would reverberate across the mainland, and would build innovative, just, and constructive solutions to slow this crisis.”
“To guard against the insurance crisis becoming a full-fledged financial crash, state regulators and legislators must strengthen their management of climate risks,” said Jordan Haedtler, Climate Financial Strategist with Climate Cabinet Education. “Hawaiʻi’s leadership has taken numerous actions to bolster climate resilience since the Maui wildfires two years ago, and Commissioner Saiki has an opportunity to continue carrying out that work through stronger insurance regulation.”
“Unfortunately, our prior Commissioner failed to prepare for the foreseeable fallout from a series of devastating climate events leading up to the Maui tragedy – leaving our residents reeling, and our legislators scrambling, as insurance rates increased exponentially nearly overnight,” said Wayne Chung Tanaka, director of the Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi. “We need our Commissioner Saiki to lead and succeed, which is why we’ve created a blueprint for him to help us restore and maintain our housing and overall economic stability, while holding polluters accountable for the devastation they are inflicting on our islands, our planet, and our future generations.”
“Fossil fuel-driven climate change is making life more expensive for Hawaiʻi residents, most directly through higher rates and decreased availability of home insurance,” said Iyla Shornstein, Political Director of the Center for Climate Integrity. “State leaders have taken important steps in recent years to ensure that insurance remains affordable and available, but more can be done to make sure that island residents arenʻt the only ones being asked to pay for the rising costs of hurricanes, wildfires and sea level rise. Oil and gas companies knew decades ago their products would make these events more destructive; they should help cover the financial consequences.”
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