The Statement: Sweetland remarks
From: Dale Sweetland, Republican candidate for 25th Congressional District. His opponents are Democrat Dan Maffei and Green Populist candidate Howie Hawkins. They running to succeed Republican Jim Walsh, who is retiring.
Type: Comment made at public forum
Date: Sept. 16, 2008
URL: Sweetland on Crop Insurance
11th paragraph down.
What He Says:
Candidates for the 25th congressional district gave their views on overhauling the health system at a public forum on Sept. 16 sponsored by SUNY Upstate and the United University Professions union. Health care remains a prominent political issue because of rising costs and the 47 million Americans without health insurance. Republican Dale Sweetland says a healthcare industry run by private organizations is better than one run by the government. In the forum, Sweetland used crop insurance as a good example of how poorly government programs work to solve insurance problems. Sweetland reminded that he once sold crop insurance.
But, he said: “It doesn’t work. You can’t find a farmer in this state who will tell you it works for them.”
The Facts:
First, let’s define crop insurance. It operates in the same way as car insurance. Farmers pay premiums to buy coverage. If something destroys the farmer’s crops, insurance will cover a portion of the losses. In this case, the federal government sets the rules for what the insurance must cover and subsidizes some of the premium. The insurance itself is provided by private companies.
Some numbers about crop insurance:
- It’s a $6.6 billion industry
- Nationally, more than 270 million acres of farm land are insured.
- New York State has about 760,000 acres insured, costing farmers about $22 million in premiums.
- Nationally, insurance companies paid out $13.3 million in claims last year.
The issue in question is whether New York farmers think the insurance is worth it. Dale Sweetland doesn’t think so. Democracywise found two farming industry experts who say otherwise.
The first is Ed Staehr, a senior associate at New York Farm Link. That’s Cornell University’s farming advocacy program. He says Sweetland’s statement is too general.
“In a lot of these cases, nothing is black or white. For a farmer who understands the policies and keeps good records, it works.” [Ed Staehr]
Brymer Humphreys is the state director for the Farm Service Agency, a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He says if you ask farmers what they think of crop insurance, their answer wouldn’t match Sweetland’s.
“Would you find a farmer that says they were glad they had it? Yes, you could find quite a few that would say that. They wouldn’t be putting up money to buy it if they didn’t think there was a value there.” [Brymer Humphreys]
Sweetland sold crop insurance for ten years through a program created by Congress. The Sweetland campaign told Democracywise the system isn’t working. “In its current state, crop insurance falls short of its intention,” said a Sweetland campaign spokesman.
Conclusion: Dale Sweetland’s statement about crop insurance is an exaggeration. While some farmers don’t like the current system, many farmers find value and benefit from it.
For Democracywise, I’m Matt Rivers.
(Matt Rivers is junior with dual majors in broadcast journalism and Spanish.)
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