Who'll Cover Us?

When "Acts Of God" and Godless Insurance Corporations Collide

As fires rage across Southern California this week, fueled by hurricane-force winds that tore through the region just days ago, the air remains thick and the skies have been—at times—apocalyptic.

Ash and debris coat everything. And the sky—an eerie orange-red haze—looks more like a photograph of Mars than a scene from Earth.

Air quality is beyond terrible. Despite calmer winds for the past few days, most Californians—myself included—are bracing for what’s next.

Typically, wind and fires are followed by rain and mudslides.

Having lived in California since the late 1990s, I’ve seen Mother Nature’s wrath grow in destruction and speed. The state’s delicate ecosystem is constantly pushed to the brink by climate change, urban sprawl, political ambitions, and public policies.

But while we can debate who or what is to blame for this week’s fires, the immediate focus is containment and recovery. Unfortunately, the recovery process is anything but straightforward, especially when it comes to insurance—the supposed safety net that’s meant to catch us when Mother Nature strikes.

STATE FARM DROPPED 1,600 POLICIES IN PACIFIC PALISADES IN JULY 2024

Insurance companies love to sell us on the idea of security. Auto, business, health, home, life—they promise coverage for every aspect of our lives. But when disaster strikes, those promises more often than not leave the insured out in the cold.

Wildfires, for example, are increasingly excluded from standard home insurance policies, forcing homeowners to seek expensive specialty coverage—or go without entirely. And even when coverage exists, the process of making a claim can be an uphill battle, with insurers doing everything they can to minimize payouts.

For freelancers and renters like myself, this is nothing new. I’ve known the feeling of being overcharged and underinsured since I graduated college. And yet…it remains scary for me and everyone I know. For the rest of American society, this could be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back. Or not.

America’s attention span is historically short—and becoming shorter—as we watch one tragedy cut to the next, like we’re spectators at a tennis match. Tragically, the "balls" being volleyed back and forth across our televisions are not more than just media circus fodder—they’re people’s lives. Lives that could easily be ours, or those of people just like us.

The fires blazing through Los Angeles and beyond are a stark reminder that our current systems aren’t equipped to handle the realities of climate change.

Insurance companies may call these disasters “acts of God,” but there’s nothing divine about the way they abandon people in their time of need.

So who’ll cover us? If history is any guide, the answer is no one.

So it’s up to the rest of us—families, friends, communities, neighbors, and grassroots efforts—to help clean up, demand change, and rebuild wherever possible.

As the fires continue burning and the skies continue raining ash and debris, one thing is clear: the promises of safety and security sold to us by insurance companies, local governments, and public utilities are little more than smoke and mirrors.

We deserve better.

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Clint

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FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

• The Insurance Industry's Biggest Fear Just Came True (Threadreader)

• Delaware judge says D&O insurers must cover Samsung unit’s settlement (Business Insurance)

• The Insurance Industry Exposed: Delay, Deny, Defend (The Brain Book Club)

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ON THIS DAY

BIRTHDAYS = HIGHLIGHTS

• 1755 or 1757 = Alexander Hamilton = Nevisian-American general, economist, politician, and 1st United States Secretary of the Treasury 🌈

• 1825 = Bayard Taylor = American poet, critic, and translator 🌈

• 1899 = Eva Le Gallienne = English actor = producer and director 🌈

• 1925 = Grant Tinker = American producer and MTM Enterprises co-founder

• 1928 = David L. Wolper = American director and producer

• 1942 = Clarence Clemons = American saxophonist and actor

• 1946 = Naomi Judd = American singer-songwriter and actor

• 1971 = Mary J. Blige = American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor

EVENTS = HIGHLIGHTS

• 1569 = First recorded lottery in England.

• 1927 = Louis B. Mayer, head of film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), announces the creation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

• 1949 = The first "networked" television broadcasts took place as KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania goes on the air connecting the east coast and mid-west programming.

• 1964 = Surgeon General of the United States Dr. Luther Terry, M.D., publishes the landmark report Smoking and Health: Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service saying that smoking may be hazardous to health, sparking national and worldwide anti-smoking efforts.

• 1973 = An American Family, a documentary series focusing on the Loud family of Santa Barbara, CA, premieres on PBS. During its 12-episode run, son Lance Loud comes out publicly on the show, characterizing himself as “Homo of the Year.”

• 1984 = The Wall Street Journal allows staff writers to now use the word “gay,” as a synonym for “homosexual” in article and headlines.

• 2000 = Britain lifts its ban on gays in the military.

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ART + QUOTES OF THE DAY

“The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.”
Alexander Hamilton

“Nobody expects to trust his body overmuch after the age of fifty.”
Alexander Hamilton