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.”