A panel of insurance and real estate experts gathered in Edwards recently to discuss how wildfire risk, legislative efforts, and health care innovation are shaping insurance costs and availability in Colorado.<\/p>\n
The Vail Valley Partnership event featured Colorado Insurance Commissioner Michael Conway, who highlighted the challenges of passing legislation aimed at improving homeowners’ insurance access. He pointed to House Bill 25-1302, which sought to increase the availability of coverage across the state but failed to make it through the legislature.<\/p>\n
“We could not get the bill out of the finance committee in the Senate,” Conway said.<\/p>\n
Conway also described other efforts that have circulated in recent years, including a proposal that would require modern protections against wildfire, hail, and other natural disasters to be installed at the time of a home sale. Under the plan, a seller would either complete the mitigation work to a set standard — determined by the state or county — or place a percentage of sale proceeds in escrow for the buyer to complete it.<\/p>\n
Scott Peterson, general counsel for the Colorado Association of Realtors, described that approach as “outstanding,” saying it would encourage mitigation while pushing insurance companies to reflect those improvements in rates.<\/p>\n
“I think it’s a great approach,” Peterson said.<\/p>\n
Jon Morse, lead agent with Comparion Insurance, noted that mitigation work can help homeowners secure better rates even without a law in place.<\/p>\n
“If you are getting ready to sell a house and you list it and you have already taken those steps, it will give you much more favorable insurance rates,” Morse said.<\/p>\n
The discussion also touched on health insurance, with Nico Brown, chief strategy officer for Vail Health, addressing the rising costs.<\/p>\n
“There’s a lot of doom and gloom out there,” Brown said.<\/p>\n
But there’s also reason for optimism, Brown said. In Eagle County specifically, he pointed to innovative solutions for companies seeking to reduce workers’ compensation risk and lower health care costs. One example, he said, is Vail Resorts’ SafeFit program, developed with Vail Health in 2012, which offers an optional wellness routine for employees designed to keep them “active, healthy and working through early intervention, injury screens, education, treatment and exercise prescription.”<\/p>\n
Brown said SafeFit was a “first-of-its-kind” program when introduced.<\/p>\n
“It’s that proactive care,” he said. “Getting in front of things has changed lives, now 14 years later, and expanded in a lot of ways. So I think we can be creative with it as well, but it takes all of us — there are no bad ideas there.”<\/p>\n
Peterson shared similar sentiments about homeowners’ insurance in Colorado, noting that casualty insurance costs are higher in scenic but high-risk areas like the Eagle River Valley, where wildfire and other “Act of God” events are more likely.<\/p>\n
“It’s places that are densely forested with lots of trees, it’s places on beautiful coast lines throughout the country that have these casualty or Act of God issues,” he said.<\/p>\n
But despite those risks and costs, Peterson added, the payoff is undeniable: “You get to live in a beautiful community.”<\/p>\n
This story was made available via the Colorado News Collaborative. Learn more at<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A panel of insurance and real estate experts gathered in Edwards recently to discuss how wildfire risk, legislative…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-92273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}