POINT CLEAR — At a symposium on coastal insurance reform held Wednesday at Marriott’s Grand Hotel, U.S. Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Ala., described the federal legislation he is supporting that would add wind coverage to the National Flood Insurance Program.

Fran Slade attended Wednesday’s Coastal Insurance Symposium at Marriott’s Grand Hotel looking for answers to the insurance crisis of increasing premium rates and canceled policies that followed in the wake of the major hurricanes that hit the Alabama Gulf Coast in 2004 and 2005.

“We have a lot of buyers and sellers who are having trouble getting insurance,” said Slade, a local real estate broker and longtime Fairhope resident. “I’ve seen several real estate contracts fall through because of not being able to get the insurance necessary.”

She said the three-hour-long meeting was helpful in giving her an overview of federal and state approaches to the complicated issue.

But she did not hear anything that promised immediate solutions.

“I’m conflicted about the issue because there is nothing in the Constitution that guarantees a right to insurance,” said Bonner, referring to federal legislation that would expand the National Flood Insurance Program to include wind coverage. “But the reason we feel it is necessary is because so many people can’t get insurance today.”

Bonner gave examples of coastal insurance premiums rising by 300 percent and of one person’s rates increasing from $250 to $25,000.

He said the House bill he supported passed last year “by a strong bipartisan vote,” but the Senate bill co-sponsored by Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., did not include the wind coverage provision.

“Sen. Shelby is not supporting (our) bill, and President Bush has threatened to veto it,” he said.

Alabama Insurance Commissioner Walter Bell, a former insurance executive, said the problem could best be handled by the state and private industry.

“It’s always been my position that the feds need to stay out of insurance as much as possible,” he said. “The states are still the best place to regulate insurance, because the states are the best place to protect the consumer. As difficult as the past few years have been, they would been even more difficult if the federal government had been involved.”

Bell said the problem was not availability but cost, citing his own experience of owning property in the area as an example.

“I had to go out and search for the insurance wind coverage, and luckily I found some, but it cost me more.”

State Sen. Ben Brooks from Mobile said Bell’s staff had helped draft legislation that he would sponsor again this year when the legislature convenes Feb. 5.

It would restructure what is known as the “beach pool,” the state insurer of last resort for coastal residents who cannot get insurance in the private market.

Brooks said, the goal is to encourage more market competition in south Mobile and Baldwin counties to “moderate prices.”

“That is the path that I believe we should go,” he said. “It is the best example of encouraging market forces to work.”

He did say that even though insurance might be technically available in most places, if the price is too high, it is beyond the reach of many of his constituents.

“It is one thing for us at the Grand Hotel to say that we can afford it,” he said. “But for a working blue-collar family,” he said, prices rising from $500 to $2,000, makes it, in effect, unavailable.

Bell said that 15,000 policies were canceled after the recent hurricane seasons, but he did believe prices would be coming down, making coverage more widely available, but not to pre-Ivan rates.

But Slade has a different view, at least for now.

“In the residential real estate industry, we have not seen a drop in rates,” she said. “In fact, it’s become more costly.”

During his remarks, Bell said that “condominium rates were dropping like rocks.”

When Slade asked a question about that Wednesday morning, Bell clarified his statement.

“He was talking about commercial rates,” she said.