Lawmakers Debate Fee Based Plan To Cut Insurance Costs With Hail Resistant Roof Grants

By Bente Birkeland | The Colorado Sun

Colorado lawmakers want to impose a per-policy fee on home insurance providers to raise $20 million a year for a program that would provide grants to homeowners to protect their properties against hail.

The hope is that the program will protect enough Colorado homes against hail that insurance rates will drop across the state.

A similar effort failed last session.

In the last five years the average premium in the state has gone up 65%, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. That makes Colorado one of the top-10 most expensive states in the country for homeowners insurance.  

Climate experts say that is partly a result of more frequent and damaging weather driven by a warming planet. Since 1980, Colorado has had more than 76 weather-related disasters — including fires, storms, hail and floods that each caused more than $1 billion in damages. And it’s getting worse — most of those disasters occurred in the past decade.

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