WASHINGTON — As the nation continues to struggles with its mass shooting epidemic, a new insurance product is growing in popularity.
"Unfortunately, because of the culture we're in, we continue to see a proliferation of these events," Karl Seebacher, of McGowan Program Administrators, said.
Insurance providers like McGowan Program Administrators now provide an "active shooter insurance."
With premiums starting at about $1,200 a year for a $1 million coverage, the program proposes to cover any expense tied to a shooting. It covers medical costs, for instance, and death benefits for the families of the victims.
"We insure some of the largest school systems in the country all the way down to very small private groups," Seebacher said. We also insure churches, synagogues, and we've insured events like parades. Manufacturing companies, restaurants, and strip malls."
The program aims to help both victims and businesses recover from the tragic events.
"One of the expenses that people don’t realize these businesses end up having to take care of is cleanup after these events .'.. It can be very very expensive," Seebacher said.
"Instances like the Sandy Hook shooting -- that school was demolished and rebuilt at a cost of over, I think, $50 million," he said. "And typical insurance policies don't pay for that because there really wasn't property damages associated with it. It was more emotional trauma."
McGowan says demand for its new product has grown exponentially in the last couple of years.
"In 2016 we rolled out the program and wrote a handful of policies in that year. This past July just last month we wrote over 125 policies in one month," Seebacher said.
McGowan now has clients all around the country, even in D.C., where they say they cover some government entities.
Unfortunately in the last few years, they say they've already had a number of clients file claims.