Insurance Coverage Gaps—An Increasing Insurance Crisis Which Needs To Be Addressed and Stopped

Rutgers Law Professor Jay Feinman has written an excellent paper regarding insurance protection gaps (of which insurance gaps are a subset) involving residential structures: The Protection Gap in Homeowners Insurance: An Introduction. I recently mentioned this emerging issue in, Coverage Gaps Plague Policyholders! Merlin Law Group and AAPIA Host Webinar Explaining What Is Being Done To Fight This Problem.

While this problem impacts all of us, his paper should be read by all involved with policy-making regarding insurance. His conclusion states:

The concept of a protection gap has become widespread in discussions about insurance. Addressing gaps and improving insurance requires clarity—clarity about what is a protection gap, where protection gaps occur, and what are the causes and cures of protection gaps. This paper frames the discussion of those issues.

One of the potentially significant features of discussion of protection gaps is that it may reshape debates about insurance and the positions of participants in those debates. Often discussion of insurance issues has resulted in predictable positions—consumer advocates versus insurance companies, insurer-side coverage lawyers versus policyholders-side lawyers, and so on. A common thread in the protection gap discussion is that insurance consumers need to be better informed about their insurance, and if they are better informed, they will buy more insurance and better insurance, with “more” and “better” likely coming at higher prices. In that way, the interests of policyholders and insurers converge for the greater social good.

I am a supporter of the insurance product and hope that policyholders purchase more insurance. I have repeatedly warned that we should not be purchasing nor promoting “cheap” insurance which has many gaps. An example of such is in an earlier post, Do Not Be Fooled By Farmers Ads—Cheap Insurance Results In Denied Claims.

This coming Friday, October 11 at 12:30 EST, Merlin Law Group and AAPIA will host an introductory 30-minute webinar on the issue of coverage gaps and what can be done to stop this problem. Yours truly and attorney Holly Soffer will moderate this discussion. Rutgers insurance law Professor Jay Feinman, the author of Delay, Deny, Defend will have a guest video appearance about his work on the topic and what you can do to help.

Quote of The Day

The only bowl Rutgers is going to is the one I just got off of.
—Glenn Foley