A hefty homeowner s insurance bill has been the cost of living in paradise for years now, ticking off residents and insurance agents in coastal and other disaster-prone areas.

The problem has made it to Congress, where two bills are likely to be debated when lawmakers return from their recess. The bills aim to improve the availability and cost of homeowners insurance in affected areas, but skeptics say neither bill will help.

Homeowner s insurance rates first spiked for many regions after 2005, when Hurricane Katrina and other major storms slammed the Gulf and Atlantic coasts. Insurers that used to plan for a once-in-a-hundred-years catastrophe each year started to add enough capital to handle two, says Don Griffin, the vice president of personal lines for the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America.

Although rates have leveled somewhat in recent years, it hasn t gotten much easier to insure a home in the hurricane zones from Florida to New Jersey. New this year, Florida s state-owned insurer Citizens is telling some policyholders to make costly repairs to their roofs or to add storm shutters or risk losing coverage. The insurance issues aren t unique to hurricane-prone states. Homeowners who live along the New Madrid fault that runs through parts of Missouri, Tennessee and other states have trouble securing affordable coverage because of their perceived earthquake risk. Insurance companies are a strange breed, says Chip Merlin, an attorney who represents policyholders in Tampa, Fla. It s amazing how they try to avoid writing insurance in places where the risk could happen.

This spring, Representative Ron Klein (D., Fla.) introduced the Homeowners Defense Act, a bill that would create a national catastrophe insurance pool to spread the risk of natural disasters. A similar bill has been introduced in the Senate. Both versions of the bill would attempt to create a national framework for pooling risk, shifting part of the regulatory burden away from the states. The pool would issue so-called catastrophe bonds, backed by money from states, to raise funds for payouts if a disaster hits. Investors would not receive their principal back if a catastrophe occurs, but they would continue to receive interest payments throughout the life of the bond. The bill also includes a federal reinsurance backstop for insurers. These provisions aim to ease the pressure on private industry. If carriers no longer need to model for the very rare disaster, they could focus on more common risks and bring their policyholders premiums down.

Some industry observers say the bill has slim chances of making it into law. Although the bill might gain traction in the House, it will be an uphill battle in the Senate, says John Prible, the assistant vice president for federal government affairs for the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America. In the Senate, legislators from states with little disaster risk aren t eager to appear as if they re subsidizing states at the most risk, Prible says. In the House, representatives from more populous states like Florida have more sway.

Meanwhile, insurance agents like Jeremy Anderson continue to face shrinking options. Based in Sikeston, Mo., Anderson says his clients are paying increasingly high rates for the earthquake coverage that banks require of mortgage holders in his area. Some carriers raised their rates by well over 100%, while others are dropping earthquake coverage altogether and forcing clients into stand-alone policies from insurers of last resort like Lloyd s of London. It s very tough, Anderson says. We re very limited in what we can do."