Panel of Experts Discuss Living in Beautiful Communities with Wildfire Risk

Vail Valley Partnership recently organized a panel of insurance and real estate experts who gathered in Edwards to discuss how wildfire risk, legislative efforts, and healthcare innovation influence insurance costs and availability in Colorado.

Michael Conway, Colorado Insurance Commissioner, talked about the difficulty of passing legislation to improve homeowners’ insurance access in wildfire-prone areas, pointing to the failure of House Bill 25-1302 and proposing a new idea requiring mitigation during home sales. Scott Peterson, Colorado Association of Realtors, supported Conway’s mitigation proposal, calling it “outstanding” and saying it could encourage safety improvements and better insurance rates.

Lead agent with Comparion Insurance, Jon Morse, emphasized that homeowners can get better insurance rates by proactively completing mitigation work, even without legislation.

Nico Brown, chief strategy officer for Vail Health, shifted the discussion to address the rising health insurance costs. “There’s a lot of doom and gloom out there, 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. He said one example is Vail Resorts’ SafeFit program, developed with Vail Health in 2012. “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.” 

Peterson shared similar sentiments, highlighting that homeowners’ insurance premiums in Colorado are higher in scenic yet high-risk areas like the Eagle River Valley, where wildfires are common, but then added, “You get to live in a beautiful community.”

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