Symposia: Private Insurance, Public Power

LPE Originals

The Religious Liberty Threat to American-Style Social Insurance

By Elizabeth Sepper, Lindsay F. Wiley

Religious liberty challenges to the Affordable Care Act often appear narrowly focused on exempting specific employers from covering particular types of care, such as contraceptives, sterilization, or gender-affirming care. However, closer examination reveals that such claims should be understood as a major new vector in the campaign against social insurance in the United States.

LPE Originals

The Insurance Industry Is Not the Victim

By Moira Birss

The rapidly worsening home insurance crisis is often understood as primarily a problem for insurers. Yet the overarching policy question should not be, “how do we save the home insurance industry from collapsing?” but rather, “what role should insurance markets play in the broader suite of policies to keep people safely housed?”

LPE Originals

The Puzzling Persistence of Gender Discrimination in Insurance

By Greta Krippner

Even though gender classifications have been eliminated from most market domains, they stubbornly persist in the insurance context. To understand this puzzling persistence, we must examine the traditions of mutualism that have shaped insurance as a social institution, and how these traditions embed gender in the tools used to price risk.

LPE Originals

Facing the Quasi-Sovereignty of Insurers

By Sarena Martinez

Insurers are quasi-sovereign actors that can determine the price and terms of economic inclusion. State insurance commissioners have little leverage over insurers that threaten to withdraw coverage when faced with unfavorable regulations. The story of Prop 103 in California suggests that popular mobilization might serve as a counterweight to insurers’ power.

LPE Originals

The Re-Risking State: The Limits of Property Insurance in Florida

By Zac Taylor

In Florida, insurers increasingly rely on external capital to prepare for the possibility of high loss climate events. Sophisticated financial tools such as insurance-linked securities provide a temporary solution to growing climate risk in coastal regions, but in the long run, they do not address the fundamental causes of the insurability crisis.

LPE Originals

Insurance Risk and Democratic Police Reform

By Anthony O’Rourke, Guyora Binder, Rick Su

Municipal liability insurers have often unrecognized incentives to discourage reforms aimed at reducing police misconduct. For insurers, the predictability of losses is more important than the level of losses. This means that they are likely to oppose democratic reforms that create uncertainty and make it difficult to price the risks of police misconduct.

LPE Originals

Private Insurance, Public Power: A Symposium

By Kate Yoon

From the health care we receive to the services our cities provide, private insurers wield significant public power. Over the next few weeks, this symposium will examine the sweet actuarial science and its industries from a law and political economy perspective.