If you own a home, you might have noticed that over the past few years your annual home insurance premium has been rising at a rapid rate.

In states like California, Texas, and Florida, home insurance premiums are spiking so much that insurance companies are actually pulling up stakes and bugging out. In California, for example, non-renewals of home insurance jumped 30% in 2021 over the previous year.

The number of Florida homeowners obtaining insurance via the state-run Citizens Insurance Agency has risen 168% since 2016 — from 500,000 to 1.3 million this year. Citizens Insurance Agency is now the largest insurer in the Sunshine State. Residents in Texas have been experiencing a similar situation.

But drastically higher insurance premiums are increasingly becoming the reality across the country irrespective of a state’s propensity for bad weather and natural disasters. On average, U.S. home insurance premiums have risen 35% from what they were two years ago.

So, what’s causing this sudden jump in premiums? There are multiple factors, but the least likely reason is the one the insurance companies most like to blame — climate change.

First Street Foundation, an organization that parrots the climate change narrative in its mission statement, wants to “make climate risk accessible, easy to understand and actionable for individuals, governments, and industry.” The foundation pushes the idea that climate change is the leading factor for increasing insurance costs, asserting that spiking premiums are a result of the popping of a “climate insurance bubble.”

But is that true? Is climate change the leading culprit? Are natural disasters getting worse? That is the popular narrative, but the data does not back it up.

The true reasons home insurance premiums have been quickly rising are tied to Bidenflation, which is making everything more expensive, as well as the age-old problem of mission creep.

The initial concept behind homeowners insurance was simply a stopgap for a catastrophic event like a fire, hurricane, flood, or tornado that destroys one’s home. In such an event, insurance would be there to help pick up the pieces and rebuild.

However, insurance is increasingly being used to cover more basic home repairs. Have a leak in your roof? Call the insurance company. Storm chasers exacerbate this problem, canvasing neighborhoods after every storm to entice homeowners to file a claim for a new roof or siding.

Insurance companies justify increasing premiums to cover these expenses. Then, as premiums increase, homeowners feel more justified in seeking insurance coverage to pay for these non-catastrophic home repairs. The cycle grows.

Climate change has become a convenient scapegoat for bad policy and ironically opened the door for more government intervention, creating even more bad policy. Consumers end up with the short end of the stick.

On a much lighter note, here’s a basic explainer for insurance generally: