FEMA Still Spending Heavily On COVID and Decades-Old Storms; Pennsylvania Supreme Court Yanks Dentist’s COVID Insurance Coverage Win, and other C-Virus related stories

FEMA still spending heavily on COVID and decades-old storms:

While the Federal Emergency Management Agency clamors for more money to deal with hurricanes and floods, it is spending a significant portion of its disaster relief fund to help communities and individuals deal with COVID-19 as well as natural disasters that occurred years and even decades ago.

The federal government declared an end to the pandemic on May 11, 2023, but taxpayer dollars are still flowing to those affected by the COVID-19 virus. FEMA in 2024 obligated $15 billion for COVID relief, nearly 40% of the agency’s planned disaster relief spending. Some of the money was spent on providing families up to $35,000 to pay for funerals of loved ones who died from COVID-19. FEMA said it will “continue to provide funeral assistance” for those who died from COVID-19 until Sept. 30, 2025.

Brian Riedl, a budget analyst at the Manhattan Institute, called FEMA’s COVID spending “an enormous share of the budget” and said federal spending related to the pandemic has dragged on.

“We’ve seen this with a lot of COVID programs where there’s a lot of controversy over the longer periods to claim reimbursements,” he said.

FEMA officials say they are running low on money to deal with new disasters in 2024 after recent back-to-back hurricanes Helene and Milton.

As of Oct. 9, $344 million in federal disaster assistance was distributed across the six states affected by Helene, which caused catastrophic flooding, hundreds of deaths and widespread destruction.

FEMA’s disaster relief fund, meanwhile, is strained by funding obligations not only for COVID-19 but also for many disasters from the past.

One chunk of FEMA’s disaster relief spending in 2024 was spent on the region affected by Hurricane Sandy, a massive storm that cut a destructive path through the Mid-Atlantic in October 2012. Significant funds were also spent on Hurricane Maria, which made landfall in Puerto Rico in September 2017.

The agency distributed $225 million from its disaster relief fund on Sandy in fiscal 2024. By comparison, it spent $350 million in 2024 on Hurricane Idalia, which made landfall in Florida in August 2023, causing significant destruction in four states.

FEMA obligated a staggering $9.1 billion in 2024 to mitigate damage caused by Maria. The storm caused tremendous damage in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory. It killed thousands and wiped out homes and much of the island’s infrastructure.

Seven years after the storm, obligated spending on Maria accounted for nearly one-quarter of FEMA’s planned disaster relief spending in 2024. —>READ MORE HERE

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Yanks Dentist’s COVID Insurance Coverage Win:

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has reversed lower court rulings and denied a dentist’s bid for insurance coverage for loss of use of his offices due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The high court concluded in a case involving CNA and Valley Forge Insurance Co. that the dentist is “not entitled to insurance coverage under the plain and unambiguous language of the CNA Policy because his business properties covered thereunder did not sustain any physical loss or damage.”

In March 2020, Governor Tom Wolf issued several orders related to the COVID-19 pandemic directing all non-essential businesses to close until further notice. Except for emergency dental procedures, Timothy A. Ungarean, DMD, owner of Smile Savers Dentistry, closed his dental practice, which he claimed caused a drastic loss in income to his business, the furloughing of employees, and other harmful consequences.

Ungarean filed a claim with CNA to recoup those losses. CNA denied coverage on the basis that the covered properties did not suffer any physical damage or harm. Ungarean subsequently filed a class action complaint seeking a declaration that the CNA policy covers his pandemic-related business losses.

A trial court granted Ungarean summary judgment, concluding that Ungarean’s interpretations of the CNA policy and its exclusions were, at the very least, reasonable, and that CNA had failed to demonstrate that the endorsements and exclusions clearly and unambiguously prevented coverage.

The appellate Superior Court in an opinion in 2022 agreed with the trial court that “direct physical loss of or damage to the property” is ambiguous, that the disjunctive “or” indicates a separate meaning of “loss” and “damage,” and that Ungarean’s interpretation of the CNA policy was reasonable and, therefore, controlling.

CNA filed a petition seeking the Supreme Court’s review.

CNA claimed that the Superior Court erred in its interpretation of the phrase “direct physical loss of or damage to property” in the policy. Specifically, CNA emphasizes that, “under the unambiguous meaning of ‘physical’ loss or damage,” a physical alteration or deprivation to the subject property is required. CNA insisted that the loss of use of the covered properties’ intended business purpose as a result of Governor Wolf’s COVID-19 non-essential business shutdown is insufficient under the policy to afford Ungarean coverage. —>READ MORE HERE

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