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GAO-23-106228 1 (2023-02-16)

handle is hein.gao/gaoogt0001 and id is 1 raw text is: The Big Picture                         What GAO's Work Shows

The federal crop insurance program offers subs
crop insurance to protect farmers against financ
losses from crop price declines and poor harves
due to natural causes. According to the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA), in 2022 the
program supported about 1.2 million policies th
covered 493 million acres. From 2011 through
the total cost of the program was about $90 billi
To implement the crop insurance program, US[
partners with private insurance companies, whi
and service insurance policies to farmers. The
federal government's crop insurance costs inclu
(1) subsidies to pay for part of a farmer's crop
insurance premium (over 60 percent in recent y
and (2) compensation to the insurance compan
selling and servicing crop insurance policies.
Total Premium and Subsidy Dollars, and Nu
of Insurance Policies

 20
S16
0
12
8
2000

idized
cial
sts
at
2021,
on.

In our work on the crop insurance program over the
past decade, we have reviewed premium subsidies
to farmers and compensation to insurance
companies for selling and servicing policies. In each
area, we have an open matter for congressional
consideration to reduce costs, as follows.
Reduce Subsidies for High-Income Participants

A      By statute, the program provides the same level of
ch sell  premium subsidies to participants, regardless of
income. In contrast, some other USDA farm
ide    programs have statutory limits on the income
participants can earn and remain eligible for
ears)  payments. For example, under the 2014 farm bill,
ies for some farm and conservation programs are not
available to individuals or legal entities whose
average annual gross income (AGI) exceeds
mber    $900,000. Not having an AGI limit for the crop
insurance program sometimes results in relatively
1.5   large subsidies for high-income participants. For
example, in March 2015, we found that one
participant whose AGI exceeded the limit in effect for
farm and conservation programs from 2009 through
1.0    2013 received an average of $1.2 million annually in
premium subsidies during those years. Participants
whose AGI was less than the limit received an
average of about $7,480 annually in premium
-~   subsidies during the same period.

2
(ft

2005        2010       2015
Number of policies
Premium subsidies

0.0
2020 2022

Total premiums
Source: GAO analysis of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) data. I GAO-23-106228

We also found that reducing crop insurance
subsidies for participants whose AGI exceeded the
limit would save millions of dollars in program costs
while affecting less than 1 percent of program
participants. If a provision establishing income limits
is enacted, USDA has procedures from other farm
programs that it could use to determine the

GAO-23-106228 Crop Insurance

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