Enlarge Video 
Download Video
Video RSS
News Five Investigates: Cost Vs. Benefit
By Tiffany Craig Special Assignment Reporter
Published: Wed, May 14, 2008 - 5:30 pm
Last Updated: Wed, May 14, 2008 - 6:32 pm
Last Updated: Wed, May 14, 2008 - 6:32 pm
Tiffany Craig
Insurance costs are going through the roof and relief isn't coming fast enough. Many of you feel helpless and just want your voices heard.
News 5 is listening.
We took some of your questions to Montgomery and got answers.
John Mullis is from Mobile and wants to know what's being done in Montgomery to help. "To me, they're just setting back with their eyes shut and leaning back and not saying nothing and they're not helping us."
Mullis is fed up with skyrocketing insurance and wants answers for our elected officials in Montgomery. Representatives Spencer Collier, Joe Mitchell, Joe Faust and James Gordon agreed to talk insurance.
Spencer Collier says insurance reform is a tough sell to those who don't live in South Alabama. "This is a serious serious problem and convincing them that insurance reform does not mean that we are gonna raise rates on their constituents. The argument they make to me when we debate or discuss the issue is... I sympathize with the people you represent but why should I raise the premiums on my constituents to subsidize premiums on your constituents? It's a poor understanding of the legislation."
Joe Mitchell says people North of Evergreen don't understand what a hurricane is or the damage it can do. "You're trying to explain to a population of people that winds will carry rain at 150 miles an hour and it will blow all of your shingles off and it will flood your house. They have no concept of it. It's almost like Planet of the Apes... man can't fly. So, if they don't believe it they don't have a sense of sympathy for it to help us convince insurance companies."
Suzy Lindblom is frustrated with cherry picking insurance companies. "My question is... is there gonna be some type of legislation passed by the State that if insurance companies want to exclude certain parts of the state, then they can't do business in the state at all?"
James Gordon says he's understands this question, he got cancelled too! "Many folks I know have gotten cancelled and have had to search for new insurance and its time we hold their feet to the fire and say if you don't want to write these then you don't write in the state."
Tiffany Craig asked if legislation like that possible.
Joe Faust says he would be all for it. "I would support it. I would support a bill to that effect." Faust also says the federal government needs to step up and help the crisis as well. "That makes it a national problem in my book. So, we have got to concentrate to get some help from our federal government and that should be... we already have flood insurance why shouldn't we have wind insurance?"
Darleen Hudson lives in Theodore and is worried about losing her house. "What do they intend to do for all of us out here when we lose our homes because being unable to pay insurance? Are they gonna provide housing for us?"
Spencer Collier says government can't fix everything. "I'm not saying we don't have a role. We have a vital role. It's our role to make sure the Insurance Commissioner is doing his job. It's our role to make sure through proper tax codes that insurance companies are being taxed as they should or providing coverage as they should. The answer is the free market."
Gordon says that this issue is the biggest issue the Mobile/Baldwin delegation faces. "We just tell the constituents that we'll continue to try but our biggest battle is not to get us to understand, it's helping to convince the other legislators."
We watched that struggle unfold in April as Mobile Senator Ben Brooks fought to get 2 insurance bills debated. "Somebody says well Senator Brooks be nice, be a good boy, sit down, we'll put your bill up. When are they gonna put it up?"
North Alabama Senator Lowell Barron was quick to respond. "I live 400 miles from the coast and I don't have to be for your insurance bill. I'm not gonna put it up as long as you're gonna be irrational in your actions and you're being childish."
But in the end, Brooks got one of his bills passed. Click here to read the bill that allows captive insurance companies to sell home and car policies.
News 5 paid another visit to Senator Barron. He's the Chairman of the Senate Rules Committee and defended his harsh comment. "I said, in reality I live 400 miles from the coast my people don't care anything about that. But the Senator from South Alabama has got to learn that if you don't help yourself and act in a way that's pleasing, he makes the rest of the state pretty mad and other senators don't have to help him."
Two senators that are helping Brooks are Rusty Glover and Trip Pittman.
Pittman says changing the structure of insurance in Alabama is challenging what's been in place for years. "The establishment in Montgomery, the status quo, the insurance companies and commissioner have tended to want to leave things as they are. They want the markets to work but the reality is the markets are not working."
Glover says that there's a misconception in other parts of the state about the insurance crisis. "We don't have condos in my part of the district. I would say middle class people affected and the poor also. I think that we 3 have made a valiant effort to get that over to them but I think sometimes a lot senators believe what they wanna believe."
Brooks, Pittman and Glover also agreed to listen to your questions and concerns.
Sharon Hamilton wants our leaders to start getting answers too. "What I'd like our legislators to investigate is how the decisions were made on lines where insurance companies decided there weren't gonna be wind and hail damage."
Brooks says he and Pittman have discussed legislation to tackle that very problem. "Let's have a series of bills to address the insurance crisis. I think addressing the way the lines are drawn is one of those ideas the lines are drawn right now by somebody in Manhattan."
No matter what your insurance question might be, chances are that you will get an answer.
Insurance reform is said to be the defining issue this election term.
Contact the Senators involved in this story:
Sen. Ben Brooks (District 35 Mobile)
Room 735-A
State House
11 South Union Street
Montgomery, AL 36130
(334) 242-7882
Sen. Rusty Glover (District 34, Mobile)
Room 735
State House
11 South Union Street
Montgomery, AL 36130
(334) 242-7886
Sen. Trip Pittman (District 32, Baldwin)
Room 738-B
11 S. Union Street
Montgomery AL 36130
(334) 242-7897
trip.pittman@alsenate.gov
Contact the Representatives involved in this story:
Rep. Spencer Collier (District 105, Mobile)
Room 540-D
11 South Union Street
Montgomery, AL 36130
(334) 242-7719
Rep. Joe Faust (District 94, Baldwin)
11 South Union Street
Room 524-C
Montgomery, Al. 36130
(334) 242-7699
jfaust@co.baldwin.al.us
Rep. James Gordon (District 98, Mobile)
Room 522-C
11 S. Union Street
Montgomery, AL 36130
(334) 242-7772
james@jamesogordon.com
Rep. Joe Mitchell (District 103, Mobile)
Room 517-A
11 S. Union Street
Montgomery, AL 36130
(334) 242-7735
house3@alhouse.org
News Map
Email to a Friend 
Printer Friendly 
I really hadn’t thought about that. I had called today to get a ballpark estimate on a house we are considering purchasing as an investment in a rural part of the county, and that is what I was told. I was told to call back when I knew if our offer had been accepted and when we would close, because it was a day by day thing. And I was told this was for Mobile/Baldwin counties. I was kind of floored when they said that, because I currently have ALL my insurance with them, and my home, nor the investment home are “high risk” areas.