Can Parametric Microinsurance Improve the Financial Resilience of Low Income Households in the United States?

Disaster risk is escalating around the globe and in the United States (Gall et al. 2011; Hoeppe 2016; USGCRP 2018; Coronese et al. 2019). With longer and more intense wildfire seasons, record numbers of acres and structures are being burned (Abatzoglou and Williams 2016; Williams et al. 2019). Coastal communities are facing rising flood risks as storm patterns shift and sea levels rise (e.g., Garner et al. 2017; Sweet et al. 2020). Localized extreme weather events are becoming more frequent with costly consequences (Stott 2016). Earthquakes continue to pose significant risks for portions of the U.S., with more people living or working in areas of high or moderate seismic hazard than ever before (Petersen et al. 2020). In addition, compound and cascading hazards are increasing (Cutter 2018; AghaKouchak et al. 2020). The consequences of these rising disasters, however, are not borne evenly.

A growing body of research—reviewed below—finds that the poor are disproportionately harmed from disasters, both worldwide and in the United States (Fothergill and Peek 2004; Hallegatte et al. 2020). A natural disaster is a negative economic shock—an event of limited duration where income declines and/or necessary expenditures increase. Lower-income households typically do not have sufficient liquid savings to fund the necessary repairs and recovery. These households are also often locked out of access to credit (Collier and Ellis 2020). Governmental aid programs, contrary to some misconceptions, are typically inadequate and often extremely delayed, leaving households suffering for weeks, months, or even years before funds arrive. Lower-income households are usually uninsured, as indemnity-based disaster policies available in the U.S. are unaffordable for them.

These constraints on post-disaster financing have spillover impacts for all aspects of life. Having the resources to be able to rebuild and repair damages is linked to emotional well-being, physical health, mental health, educational attainment, and the stability of families (Farrell and Greig 2018; McKnigh 2019). Without the resources to recover, households turn to coping mechanisms that can have long-term negative impacts and limit their ability to build wealth (Jacobsen et al. 2009). This is a challenge for a large number of families in the U.S. For 2020, the poverty rate, as estimated by the U.S. Census for the contiguous U.S., was roughly 12%. An even larger percentage of households qualify as low-income. U.S. disaster policy, despite the needs of this population, offers little that is means-tested or specifically designed to help these households.

One potential tool to help improve the financial resilience of lower-income households is parametric microinsurance. Microinsurance refers to insurance policies that have low premiums and lower coverage limits and are designed for poorer populations. Parametric insurance rapidly pays out a set amount based on observable measures of the disaster, such as wind speed in a certain location. When the designated parameter is reached, a payout is triggered. Since costly and time-consuming loss adjusting is not needed for parametric policies, the transaction costs are much lower, opening up the ability to provide lower-limit insurance policies, for which premium revenue would otherwise be insufficient to cover expenses.

Most examples of parametric microinsurance policies come from developing countries, where such products have been piloted and implemented for the last couple decades. Microinsurance has been offered for a range of coverages, including life and health, as well as crop and livestock insurance to help smallholders with weather-related losses and provide financial stability in the face of drought, floods, or other perils (e.g., Barnett et al. 2008). Beyond recovery, microinsurance can play an important role in allowing risk-taking activities that would increase income or assets, and thus help lift people out of poverty, such as when crop insurance allows for the planting of riskier, but higher-revenue crops. While a critical role for risk transfer, this paper is limited to the role of insurance in protecting lower-income households in developed nations from sliding further into poverty as a result of insufficient resources for disaster recovery. The paper thus explores whether and how the concept of parametric microinsurance can be extended to the U.S. to provide post-disaster financial resilience to lower-income households. To date, there have been no microinsurance products offered in the U.S., although that is soon about to change. This past summer, Puerto Rico’s insurance commissioner introduced regulations to enable the launch of parametric microinsurance products to protect low-income families on the island from natural disasters. At least one firm, Raincoat, is ready to begin offering such a product.

This paper presents a proof-of-concept for implementing parametric microinsurance in the U.S., with spillover lessons for other highly developed countries. Section 2 begins with an overview of the recovery needs and disaster financing available to low-income households in the U.S. Section 3 provides a more detailed overview of parametric microinsurance and Section 4 discusses the challenges with offering this product. Section 5 then details five different distribution models for how parametric microinsurance could be adopted, with policies being provided through either: (1) an aggregator, (2) a mobile-based technology, (3) linking to other products or retailers, (4) a community captive, or (5) a public sector insurer. Section 6 discusses implementation steps. Section 7 concludes with reflections on next steps for exploring this potential solution in the U.S.