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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Case For Pausing Any Immediate Embrace Of The Social Inflation Argument For Legal System Reforms, Kenneth S. Klein
The Case For Pausing Any Immediate Embrace Of The Social Inflation Argument For Legal System Reforms, Kenneth S. Klein
Faculty Scholarship
This paper brings a critical eye to the current conversation about "social inflation," reaching the conclusion that the current calls for legal system reform--whether that be controls on attorney advertising, clamping down on litigation financing, revisiting of fee recovery rules, or other similar reform proposals--currently lack the empirical support and analytical comprehensiveness for. regulators and legislators to act with confidence that the requested reforms will do more good than harm. In a variety of States, insurance premiums are rising faster than general inflation, some insurers are becoming insolvent, and some insurers are leaving markets entirely. Insurers are pointing to social …
Is Fire Insurable?, Kenneth S. Klein
Is Fire Insurable?, Kenneth S. Klein
Faculty Scholarship
The focus of this chapter is on the extant data on the prevalence, causes, and depth of inadequate, unavailable, and/or unaffordable dwelling insurance for fire, and what might be done about it. Whether it is ‘bushfire’ in Australia or ‘wildfire’ in the United States, the frequency, intensity, and cost of fire is increasing, with no reason to expect the upward trend to dissipate any time soon. Most homeowners want to insure their homes for fire and think they both have done so and done so adequately. More often than not, they are wrong. And many are finding that insurance now …
Ashes To Ashes: A Way Home For Climate Change Survivors, Kenneth S. Klein
Ashes To Ashes: A Way Home For Climate Change Survivors, Kenneth S. Klein
Faculty Scholarship
In 2020, the United States suffered a record number of named storms, a record number of storms causing $1 billion or more in damage, a derecho that destroyed much of Iowa’s corn crop, and previously unheard-of levels of wildfire frequency and damage in California, Oregon, and Washington. The effects of climate change are causing a crisis of affordable, available homeowner insurance. As more and more homes in the United States are in high-risk areas for natural catastrophes, insurers increasingly choose not to offer insurance at all in some communities, exclude disaster risks from coverage in others, and dramatically raise prices …
Minding The Protection Gap: Resolving Unintended, Pervasive, Profound Homeowner Underinsurance, Kenneth S. Klein
Minding The Protection Gap: Resolving Unintended, Pervasive, Profound Homeowner Underinsurance, Kenneth S. Klein
Faculty Scholarship
A significant majority of homeowners in the United States unwittingly have less insurance than necessary to rebuild their home in the event of a complete loss. This persistent, multibillion-dollar protection gap first emerged in the 1990s and has never resolved despite a desire by most homeowners to contract for full replacement coverage. While a great deal of academic and industry literature has addressed the issue of underinsurance, the work has been done without reference to two sources that unlock the conundrum. The first is the 1550+ page administrative rulemaking file of the California Department of Insurance collected in the wake …
The Aca, Provider Mergers And Hospital Pricing: Experimenting With Smart, Lower-Cost Health Insurance Options, Susan A. Channick
The Aca, Provider Mergers And Hospital Pricing: Experimenting With Smart, Lower-Cost Health Insurance Options, Susan A. Channick
Faculty Scholarship
This paper addresses the issue of whether the recent significant uptick in provider mergers and the implementation of the Affordable Care Act have a particularly adverse effect on provider pricing in the commercial insurance market. Uncompetitive provider markets exacerbate already existing high cost issues such as lack of transparency in provider pricing, patient behavior that conflates reputation and quality, and payers’ inability, or at least reluctance, to exclude high-price providers from their networks. The ACA’s incentives for providers to coordinate patient care and hospitals’ revenue losses from reductions in Medicare reimbursement create further rationales for consolidation. The burden of finding …
When Enough Is Not Enough: Correcting Market Inefficiencies In The Purchase And Sale Of Residential Property Insurance, Kenneth S. Klein
When Enough Is Not Enough: Correcting Market Inefficiencies In The Purchase And Sale Of Residential Property Insurance, Kenneth S. Klein
Faculty Scholarship
Each year at least hundreds, and often thousands of Americans lose their homes to natural disasters striking populated areas. Tens of thousands lose their homes to single-instance fires, floods, or other catastrophes. The majority of these homeowners are underinsured, meaning they have less insurance than it will cost to rebuild their homes. This Article analyzes whether such underinsurance indicates correctible inefficiencies in the residential property insurance markets. The Article identifies two inefficiencies: (1) Inadequate information, which impairs informed pricing decisions by purchasers; and (2) Dispute costs (such as litigation) in the instances of loss exceeding coverage. The Article proposes addressing …
Following The Money – The Chaotic Kerfuffle Over Residential Insurance Proceeds That Simultaneously Are The Only Rebuild Funds And The Only Mortgage Collateral, Kenneth S. Klein
Following The Money – The Chaotic Kerfuffle Over Residential Insurance Proceeds That Simultaneously Are The Only Rebuild Funds And The Only Mortgage Collateral, Kenneth S. Klein
Faculty Scholarship
In an average year in the United States, 30,000 homes are lost to fire, flood, or another similar disaster. In 2003, one of those homes was mine. Since that time, I have spent literally thousands of hours counseling hundreds of survivors of other disasters (including wildfires, Hurricane Katrina, and the crash of a military jet into a residential neighborhood) on the unique set of emotional, financial, and legal challenges that define their road to recovery. One of the recurring and yet repetitively unanticipated challenges is the tug of war between homeowners and their mortgage lender/mortgage servicer over money. That challenge …
Insurance Law: Public Policy Permits Insuring Against One's Own Intentional Acts Of Discrimination, Daniel B. Yeager
Insurance Law: Public Policy Permits Insuring Against One's Own Intentional Acts Of Discrimination, Daniel B. Yeager
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.