Weekly Roundup: Survivors Demand Action, Homeowners Face Rising Costs, and Policymakers Debate Over Climate's Role in the Insurance Crisis

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 26, 2026

Contact: contact@insurancefairnessproject.com

Weekly Roundup: Survivors Demand Action, Homeowners Face Rising Costs, and Policymakers Debate Over Climate's Role in the Insurance Crisis

Each week, the Insurance Fairness Project highlights the latest developments in the national climate-driven property insurance crisis. For more insurance updates, follow us on LinkedIn, X/Twitter, and Bluesky.

1/ NEW POLLING IN FIVE STATES SHOWS IMPACTS OF HOME INSURANCE CRISIS: The Insurance Fairness Project and Climate Power released new polling of registered voters in five states. Three separate surveys were conducted, one in Arizona; one in North Carolina; and one covering Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas.

Top poll findings: 

• Across all surveys, 51-54% of voters worry insurance costs will hinder home ownership or upgrades. Younger voters (under 35) show significantly higher concern than those 65+.

• About 75% of residents fear rising premiums over the next three years and more than 1 in 3 are concerned about having coverage dropped in the next 3 years.

• Insurance costs have forced 30% of North Carolinians and 26% of those in IA/KS/NE and Arizona to delay major purchases or expenses. Young adults (18-34) are consistently the most impacted.

• Across party lines, 83-86% believe state officials must do more to curb rising premiums.

• Voters support mitigation (>75%), transparency (>74%), and accountability (>63%) solutions when provided with policy proposals.

• Iowa Capital Dispatch: Polling shows Midwestern voters concerned about home insurance cost

• “Voters want solutions that cut to the root causes of the issue and prioritize our wellbeing over excessive profiteering,” TJ Helmstetter, a spokesperson for the Insurance Fairness Project, said in a news release. 

2/  SURVIVORS GATHER AT U.S. CAPITOL TO DEMAND ACTION: This week, Extreme Weather Survivors brought dozens of survivors of floods, wildfires, hurricanes, extreme heat, and other disasters to the U.S. Capitol to call on policymakers to do more to help communities recover and prepare for worsening climate impacts.

• Vtdigger: 2 central Vermonters invited to Washington event honoring extreme weather survivors

  “It was the most traumatizing thing I ever went through in my life,” Whittaker said in a phone interview. “To have a running business one day and the very next day have your whole business completely destroyed, have 40 employees who no longer have work, have no income …. Every business owner was traumatized by going through that. It was very difficult, very painful, very scary.”

• Kiowa County Press: Survivors of Texas extreme weather events seek support from lawmakers

  “At the first sign of a storm, he wants to look at the phone and track the weather,” Rabon observed. “In the immediate aftermath, there were hallucinations, waking up thinking that the ceiling was leaking or that his bed was wet.”

• WWAY TV 3: North Carolina hurricane survivors head to Washington for national disaster recovery event

  Among those attending is Madison Maxwell, who lives outside Asheville and said Hurricane Helene destroyed her mountaintop mobile home when a tree crashed through it, leaving her trapped inside. Maxwell has since navigated insurance claims, federal assistance programs and rebuilding efforts while advocating for changes to disaster recovery processes.

3/ NEW REPORT ON INSURANCE PROFITS RAISES QUESTIONS OF FAIRNESS TO HOMEOWNERS AND CONSUMERS: A new analysis from Public Citizen and Revolving Door Project shows that 2025 was the property and casualty insurance industry most profitable underwriting year in over two decades. Meanwhile, insurers continue to raise rates, reduce coverage, deny claims, and fight regulatory reforms — spotlighting the role insurers play in worsening the ongoing national property insurance crisis and the wider cost-of-living crisis.

Key findings: 

• Underwriting income surged to $68.7 billion in 2025, up from $25.3 billion the year before, and a roughly $90 billion reversal over the last two years.

• Insurers earned more than $111 billion in investment income.

• The industry's policyholder surplus reached a record $1.27 trillion.

• Public Citizen: Insurers Score Record Profits While Consumers Pay

4/ DEBATE ON U.S. SENATE FLOOR OVER CLIMATE CHANGE’S CONNECTION TO INSURANCE PREMIUMS: Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) recently sought unanimous Senate approval for a resolution recognizing that climate change is contributing to rising home insurance premiums across the country. However, Sen. Cynthia Lummis, Republican of Wyoming, objected, blocking the measure.

• Senator Sheldon Whitehouse on the Senate floor: If the environmental realities are too much for the Senate to acknowledge, perhaps my colleagues will at least recognize the economic threats that are emerging. 

  Here’s today’s simple truth: Climate change is driving up the cost of homeowners insurance. 

• In a recent op-ed, Senator Whitehouse laid out the case further: Families face increased grocery costs, electric bills and home insurance premiums. Climate-driven hikes in home insurance are the top economic issue in many places. In a poll by the Potential Energy Coalition, by a margin of 74-10, voters want companies to pay for the harm their pollution causes. [....] 

  As climate risk clobbers home insurance, cascades into mortgage markets and slams property values, it’s poised to cause a full-on recession if we don’t do anything. It’s already started in Florida. The warnings about climate consequences are real, and the leading edge is financial. 

5/ THE WHITE HOUSE RELEASES ITS NATIONAL RESILIENCE STRATEGY: The strategy makes mentions of the importance of affordable insurance and proactive risk management.

• The White House: National Resilience Strategy

6/ STATE ROUNDUP - THE INSURANCE CRISIS CONTINUES TO SPREAD DEEPER INTO THE COUNTRY: This week, stories out of Nevada, Colorado, Michigan, and Florida demonstrate how widespread the insurance crisis has become.

• Nevada Current: Home insurance getting canceled/declined for wildfire risk in some surprising places

  Wildfire-related home insurance cancellations and declinations — refusals to insure applicants — have skyrocketed in pockets of Nevada, and insurance regulators couldn’t give state lawmakers a solid explanation as to why Wednesday. 

• Denver7: Jefferson County homeowners brace for wildfire insurance gaps as costs climb

  Colorado ranks second in the nation for hail claims and homes in wildfire-prone areas, driving double and triple-digit insurance rate increases

• AP: No maps, no insurance: Michigan floods expose lack of information, preparation in many rural areas

  Across Michigan, thousands were left without financial protection after record April rains fell on top of record March snowfall. Worse, many had no idea they were at risk despite years of increasingly heavy precipitation.

  Their experience exposes vulnerabilities across the country, experts say, because flood plain maps don’t cover all areas. What’s more, the federal government’s mapping method is arguably outdated and does not account for actual risks as climate change increases the odds of more extreme weather.

• KIRO 7: Florida insurance crisis is a national warning about climate coverage

  There are so many things wrong with the way Florida is handling its insurance system. Higher insurance prices, fewer options for coverage, and additional burdens on homeowners are resulting from the Florida insurance crisis. As this crisis unfolds, it is likely that other states may experience the same problem.

Resources

• Insurance Fairness Project: Polling – Voters Want Their Government to Address the Property Insurance Crisis

• Public Citizen and the Revolving Door Project: Mapping the Home Insurance Crisis

• Consumer Federation of America: Overburdened: The Dramatic Increase in Homeowners Insurance Premiums and its Impacts on American Homeowners

• Brookings Institution:Homeowners insurance in an era of climate change

• Consumer Federation of America and Climate and Community Institute: Penalized: The Hidden Cost of Credit Score in Homeowners Insurance Premiums

• Americans for Financial Reform and Public Citizen: Rising Property Insurance Premiums: The Uneven Risks to Household and Systemic Financial Stability

• Climate and Community Institute (CCI): Insurers of Last Resort: Why Today’s FAIR Plans Need a Redesign to Address the Home Insurance Crisis

• Center for Climate Integrity: How Big Oil is Fueling the Insurance Crisis And Why State Policymakers Should Act

• Dave Jones, Yale Law Journal: The Uninsurable Future: The Climate Threat to Property Insurance, and How to Stop It

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The Insurance Fairness Project is an information hub dedicated to offering insights into the home insurance crisis, exploring its drivers and highlighting solutions alongside issue experts and community advocates.