Climate change makes some of the U.S. uninsurable

Transcript

Good morning! Welcome to Axios Today! It’s Tuesday, June 6th. I’m Niala Boodhoo. Today: the disconnect between workers and employers on menopause. Plus, how do YOU approach summer reading? We want to hear from you. But first, climate change risks are making some of the country uninsurable. That’s our One Big Thing.

Climate change hits the insurance industry

NIALA: Allstate joined State Farm as another major insurer to say recently. It's no longer accepting applications for California property insurance, including homes and commercial property. Concerns are growing, and not just in California, about the viability of the property insurance industry. Axios’ Andrew Freedman is here to talk about the growing portion of America that's becoming close to uninsurable, in part because of climate risks. Hey, Andrew.

ANDREW FREEDMAN: Hey there.

NIALA: So let's start with State Farm. What did they say about why they're not doing this in California anymore?

ANDREW: So they cited a number of factors – climate risks with, uh, wildfire danger among them. But there's other things going on that are somewhat unique to the California market. Some of it is due to the supply chain issues and costs of new construction, and there's also state regulations that kind of holds the cost increases down, so property insurers don't have the freedom to charge a whole bunch more when they're seeing more risk, which forces them to lose money or get out.

NIALA: But we're also seeing this happen in other states like Florida when it comes to hurricane insurance, Andrew.

ANDREW: Yeah. The three main states that you can point to as the early harbingers of climate related insurance risk is California, with the wildfire situation, Florida with hurricanes, as well as flooding, and Louisiana for the same reason. And in Florida, for example, the biggest homeowner insurer is now a state plan. So a lot of people are questioning whether or not that's a really good long-term plan because you might get a major hurricane come along, cause a ton of damage, and then it's taxpayers on the hook to replenish that fund.

NIALA: I mean, I've already heard, Andrew, of friends in South Florida who have been quoted homeowner insurance premiums of like $20,000 a year. So, my question to you is what role does the reinsurance market play in all of this? Cause that's part of the issue here too.

ANDREW: The reinsurance market is basically insurance for insurance companies. Even large ones like State Farm and Allstate really don't have sway in what is a global marketplace in the reinsurance market. So the cost of reinsurance is going up, and that makes the insurance companies more apt to raise prices, because they're getting squeezed from multiple points on the chain.

NIALA: So we're maybe seeing worse case scenarios for this in California, Florida, and Louisiana. But what about other states?

ANDREW: Folks that I've been talking to in the industry are saying this should really be looked at as a 50 state problem. We're already seeing some of these dynamics play out in coastal communities in Virginia, North Carolina. New Jersey, uh, Massachusetts and some other areas where you have significant storm related coastal flooding risks. But there's also inland flooding issues. So experts that are looking at changing risk patterns in the United States are saying, “hey, why not retrofit more homes? Let's take some of the climate projections seriously, have more funding available to retrofit homes for more vulnerable residents who might not be able to afford it.” Doing those sorts of resilience activities can ultimately pay off for both homeowners and the insurance industry.

NIALA: Are we moving to a point where parts of the country literally may not be insurable anymore?

ANDREW: We're almost there when it comes to certain places. And that's really an issue for public policy makers to start to solve and for individual communities to address. It's something that affects everybody with a mortgage. It's something that affects everybody, even, you know, who's a renter.

NIALA: Andrew Freedman covers climate and energy for Axios. Thanks, Andrew.

ANDREW: Thanks for having me.

NIALA: In a moment, menopause and the workplace.

The menopause gap at work

NIALA: Welcome Back to Axios Today, I’m Niala Boodhoo. As the U.S. workforce is aging, many employers say they discuss menopause with employees, and that they’re rethinking their health benefits to reflect the needs of women at this phase of life. But many employees say they’re not getting information or support. Since menopause and its symptoms can make working harder, or even push women out of the workforce as they’re at the top of their field, that disconnect matters.

We asked you about your experiences with menopause at work, and listener Alice in Maryland wrote to tell us that as a 42-year-old woman experiencing "surgical menopause" – that’s menopause caused by the removal of the ovaries, earlier than typical menopause age – she’s been have a hard time keeping a full-time job while managing all the symptoms, from sleep disruptions and night sweats to increased forgetfulness. She says it’s quote “hard to discuss with my employer because it's a taboo topic, and I'm not in the typical age-group for affected women, so it requires uncomfortable explanation. I'm in the thick of my career and not really retirement age, but I worry about whether I can keep up.” Thanks so much for sharing that, Alice.

Axios’ Emily Peck has been reporting on how all this is playing out in the workplace. Hey Emily.

EMILY PECK: Hey, Niala.

NIALA: So about two-thirds of women said in a recent survey, they don't feel comfortable talking about menopause at work. Let's start there. Why is there still a taboo around this?

EMILY: Well, there's long just been a taboo. Women don't talk about menopause. Maybe you talk about it with your friends, a close family member. But women going through menopause. That means you're older and in the United States. You know, there's a stigma against older women, and especially in the workplace, um, where you would be afraid of age discrimination. Talking about menopause is essentially admitting that you're old and women, you know, are hesitant to do that.

NIALA: Emily, do we know how menopause affects women's productivity at work and even lead some to quit their jobs?

EMILY: There's more and more research on this topic as it becomes less taboo in the United States. I wrote about a Mayo Clinic study last month that looked at 4,400 women about, and

13% of them reported some kind of, like, adverse work outcome related to menopause symptoms. So, you know, we're talking about missing work, a few days a week. And a few do actually quit their jobs. There is some anecdotal reporting. Bloomberg had a great story recently about an executive at J. Crew. who wound up just walking away from her position because she was going through menopause, and it was all kind of, too much.

NIALA: What's the role of healthcare coverage in all of this?

EMILY: If you have employer-sponsored healthcare insurance, you should be able to get treatment for menopause, like hormone replacement therapy. But you know, some doctors don't talk about that with women. And certainly, some employers aren't out there telling employees like, oh, you can get this very specific kind of treatment for menopause. One of the recommendations, for employers and companies is to sort of put together information on all the resources women might have at the company so that there's more awareness of the treatments available.

I spoke to a woman who works at Bank of America, and she mentioned through the bank, employees have access to The Maven app, which has resources that women can tap, you know, to get more information on treatment for menopause.

NIALA: So companies do say they're paying more attention, but employees aren't feeling that. Why do you think this disconnect is happening?

EMILY: I don't know. It was a very striking finding in the survey that 76% of human resource benefits managers say they discuss menopause with employees. Only 3% of women employees say they've talked about this with HR. I think maybe they put something somewhere down on a paper or a policy, but certainly the message is not getting through.

NIALA: I think it's an interesting time we're in because culturally I feel like there is more conversation about menopause publicly, about businesses investing in women going through menopause. Is that helping change things?

EMILY: Oh, absolutely. It's really been stunning this year. There are a lot of new companies in the space that are targeting women with kind of, like, health products, creams, you know, cooling pads, things like that. And then there are, you know, more medical startups that you can go to for your hormone replacement therapy and things like this. There are celebrities getting into the menopause space. There's like a lot of money going into the sector now, and at the same time, there's just a new openness among women, Generation X women. You know, they seem their daughters sort of embrace a new way of being a woman in the world, and it's sort of has influence going up the generations.

NIALA: Emily Peck is a business reporter at Axios. Thanks, Emily.

EMILY: Thanks, Niala.

Axios Today's Summer Reading Series

NIALA: Before we go, I wanted to tell you about our summer reading series we’re launching Friday. We’ll collect great recommendations from interesting folks across lots of genres. But before we talk about what to read, we want to hear about how you’re reading. According to a recent Pew Research survey, print books are still the most popular format. Nine percent of readers say they’re strictly e-book readers. I’m one of them.

What about you? Do you prefer e-books? Audiobooks? Text me or send a voice memo to 202-918-4893. And tune in Friday for our summer reading kick-off conversation.

And that’s all for today. I’m Niala Boodhoo, thanks for listening, stay safe, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow morning.