3-11 IAN Crop Insurance

3-11 IAN Crop Insurance

 While 2012 crop insurance indemnity payments hit a new record high - the taxpayer-funded portion of those losses will be much lower than crop insurance critics warned last summer.That is good news for the future of the program and good news for farmers who are closing in on the March 15th deadline for signing up for crop insurance on most spring planted crops in all but the southernmost states. 

 

This is also the deadline for making any changes to existing policies. The 2012 indemnities hit 14.2-billion dollars and will climb some more as claims are finalized. That means there will be some government loss in the program for 2012 - but it will be mitigated by the 4.1-billion in farmer paid premiums as well as losses absorbed by the private insurance companies that deliver and service the crop insurance program.

 

Here is the National Association of Farm Broadcasters Seanica Otterby: “The Congressional Budget Office foresees a sharp decline in indemnities in 2013 and has lowered its projections for total federal outlays for crop insurance by nearly 8-billion dollars over the next 10-years. All this contributes to a sense of optimism over the future of the crop insurance program. After all - unlike many previous years of weather disasters - there was no need to pass ad-hoc disaster legislation last year. Farmers will use their indemnities to recover from their loss and then plan for this year’s crop. That plan will no doubt include a careful review of their crop insurance options before the March 15th deadline.

 

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