Most home and renter insurance policies do not cover the damage from an earthquake. Uninsured risk, such as this earthquake risk, in the United States is an unacceptable moral hazard. The FAIR Foundation is dedicated to promoting private market insurance options to insure against these risks. We believe that the solution to cure the moral hazard is to require homeowners with federally backed mortgages to purchase all-peril insurance policies that include wind, earthquake, flood, and fire.
Issue
Earthquakes and earthquake risk is not just a California problem. One-third of high-risk earthquake areas are in other parts of the United States.
For example, the Cascadia Subduction Zone is nearly 700 miles long and 50 miles off shore running from Northern California to Vancouver Island. This zone can cause potential earthquakes which are thirty times more powerful than the San Andreas fault.
Solution
Mandate all-peril insurance policies (including earthquake, flood, fire, and wind coverage) for homeowners with a federally backed mortgage.
Action
Build a coalition of stakeholders to fight for passage of this mandate.
