Home-insurance premiums are soaring and dangerous coverage gaps are widening as the planet keeps getting hotter and more chaotic. Our traditional private insurance model isn’t keeping up. It’s time for a public option.

From Bloomberg Opinion (gift link above):

“At a moment when America’s home insurance crisis has become bad enough to turn conservatives into [socialists](https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2026-03-06/the-insurance-crisis-is-so-desperate-people-are-turning-socialist?srnd=undefined), a possible solution may just involve — you guessed it — big government. And contra [Ronald Reagan](https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/speech/presidents-news-conference-23), in this case there’s reason to think the government truly can help.

“To address soaring insurance premiums and coverage gaps in an age of worsening climate-fueled disasters, the Brookings Institution has [proposed](https://www.hamiltonproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318_THP_CollierKeysMulder_ClimateInsurance_PolicyProposal.pdf) creating a federal reinsurance company to cover US home insurers. It would be, as proposal co-author Benjamin Keys of the Wharton School put it in a [rollout event](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNUvk7YTdd0) last week, a sort of “public option” for home insurance.”

It’s time for public help but why waste it on insuring homes that are now in unsustainable places? Why not use the money to relocate people instead? Sacrifice zones are becoming a fact of life.

Public options are pretty terrible.

Check out the federal flood insurance on the florida coast.