Georgia Childcare Centers Face Insurance Crisis

An excellent investigative article from the Georgia Public Policy Foundation examines a problem that my clients have been talking about for quite a while — the climbing cost of insurance.  It is getting harder, if not impossible, for childcare centers and other youth serving organizations to obtain insurance.  Premiums are rising because of high jury verdict and settlements, and childcare centers have to pass the costs on to customers.  All of this is happening at the same time as a shortage in quality childcare providers.

Georgia is not the only state  with this problem, and childcare is not the only industry affected.  An article from the Los Angeles Times describes how an insurer is threatening to pull out of the state because of high jury verdicts, with the result that many foster care agencies — and their foster homes — may shut down.  As always happens when there is a shortage of foster homes, the children themselves will suffer the most.

There’s no clear cut answer to the problem, although tort reform would help.  Certainly, people who negligently harm children should be held accountable.  But we need to find a way to ensure that the accountability does not create the usual chain reaction of fewer and lower quality resources for vulnerable children.