Patty’s Takes: The Insurance Side of Wildfire Season

Washington state Insurance Commissioner Patty Kuderer’s newsletter, Patty’s Takes, goes out each quarter. Subscribe here.

The most devastating wildfire in state history took place two years ago. The Gray and Oregon Road fires destroyed 366 homes and burned 23,000 acres, leaving hundreds of people to rebuild their lives and homes.

Unfortunately, about two-thirds of the claims filed after the fire paid out 100% of their dwelling coverage. That most likely means they were underinsured and left funding the additional cost to reconstruct their homes out of their own pocket.

My staff and I spent May reminding everyone in an area with any type of fire threat to review their insurance policy and look into what they can do to make their home more defensible against wildfires. Make sure coverage is in place to fund rebuilding your home, and consider additional living expense (or “loss of use”) coverage to help with the extra costs of living somewhere while your home is rebuilt.

I also had an exciting announcement: I’m working with Washington State Commissioner of Public Lands Dave Upthegrove on fire solutions. We’re co-chairing a work group to study wildfire mitigation and resiliency standards.

We’ll study wildfire mitigation standards, how to mitigate fires at the community level, how to best share data between state agencies and the insurance industry, and how to improve consumer transparency around wildfire risk. And not to bury the lead, but we’re looking to a resiliency grant program to help people fund improvements that could protect their homes from wildfire. (Alabama’s “Fortified” roof grant program has shown promising results and IBHS — which sets the Fortified standard — also has a designation for wildfire home defense.)

Our workgroup meetings start July 1 and you can watch live on TVW.

Kicking off the Community Connect Initiative

One of my first initiatives is to bring our services out of Olympia and into as many communities across the state as possible through our Community Connect Initiative.

This week we visited Lewis County, meeting elders of the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation and community members at the Twin Cities Senior Center in Chehalis. We shared a little bit about our agency and the services we provide and had a chance to visit with people about their concerns.

Happy Pride Month!

I recorded a podcast with Darlin Lozano and Sam Fennell from the Washington State LGBTQ Commission to talk about gender-affirming care — the barriers to receiving treatment, what’s covered, and where to turn for help.

Don’t fall for it!

June 5–30 is Medicare Fraud Prevention Month. Our blog outlines how to keep yourself and your loved ones safe and breaks down common scams and how to avoid them. Learn all about Medicare fraud prevention on our website.

Reporting from the other Washington

My fellow insurance regulators and I visited our nation’s capital on May 14 and 15 to discuss insurance regulatory priorities with members of Congress and to strongly oppose the efforts to destroy FEMA, NOAA, and the NFIP. Our legislators understand the risks climate change poses to home insurance and are committed to extending enhanced premium tax credits under the Affordable Care Act, without which up to 80,000 Washingtonians could lose their coverage.

Take care of your mental health

May was Mental Health Awareness Month, but just because it’s over doesn’t mean you have to wait until next year. On our podcast, a member of our Consumer Advocacy team breaks down the rights you have when it comes to your health insurance and coverage of mental health treatment.