At least two countries — the Netherlands and Spain — have terrorism risk insurance systems that protect life insurers.
The Dutch system also protects health insurers.
Officials at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) have published descriptions of the Dutch terrorism risk insurance system, the Spanish system, and other countries' systems in a report on 15 non-U.S. terrorism insurance systems.
The GAO developed the report to carry out a provision in the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2015. The 2015 TRIA reauthorization requires the GAO to look at how other countries structure and fund their terrorism risk insurance systems.
In the United States, the system created by TRIA uses a federal program with up to $100 billion in annual funding to backstop the coverage written by private insurers.
The U.S. program protects issuers of property insurance and workers' compensation insurance. But it does not shelter life insurers or issuers of health and disability insurance coverage unrelated to occupational risk.
In New York City, for example, TRIA protects the ability of insurers to cover the new World Trade Center Transportation Hub. TRIA does not protect insurers' ability to pay death claims, medical bills or disability benefits for the tens of thousands of passengers who move through the hub every day.
