This effectively acts as a subsidy for high-risk areas. It is very difficult to get comprehensive private insurance (which in principle would have premiums aligned to risks) because insurers believe the risks to be too high for them to offer affordable policies. The Austrian Insurance Association estimated that only EUR 400 million of the 2002 flood losses were covered by private insurance, out of as much as EUR 3 billion (Habersack and Moser, 2003).