Tallahassee, Florida – On Monday, March 23rd, the special session on insurance was called to address the impending crashing property insurance market. Yesterday, Tuesday March 24th, the bill was rammed through the Senate floor with no indication that any of this legislation will actually help people with their increasing insurance rates. Senator Taddeo presented four amendments to combat the excessive rate hikes and yet each one was voted down on a party line vote.
To summarize, Senator Taddeo presented the following amendments to the property insurance bill:
- Granting the Consumer Advocate access to all aggregate information from insurance companies authorized by the OIR necessary for them to carry out their duties, including information considered “trade secrets”. In addition, if the OIR receives a proposal to increase rates, they must consult with the Consumer Advocate before approving.
- Requiring homeowner insurance companies provide policies in all counties of the states. Currently companies are allowed to discriminate against South Florida specifically. A cornerstone of our economy is the ability of choice. If consumers are not given as many options for insurance, and if companies do not have sufficient competition, we will not have the kind of market needed to keep insurance costs low and empower consumers.
- Allowing Floridians to purchase dwelling-only insurance from Citizens Insurance excluding personal property coverage as opposed to the current situation where these policies must be sold together. This would allow Floridians to purchase cheaper policies for solely the structure of their property.
- Mandating that all insurance companies operating in Florida make a rate filing with OIR and any savings achieved through the actions of this bill be passed on to consumers by reflecting it in a rate reduction.
Senator Annette Taddeo had this to say: “This special session did not address the real issue Florida homeowners need, being able to afford their insurance policies. They expected us to come to Tallahassee and get to work. These two days of ramming through legislation did nothing to lower the rates on homeowners, nothing. And to top it off, the majority of this body voted in favor of more bailouts for insurance companies. We have been sent to Tallahassee on behalf of those who can no longer afford to insure a roof over their heads and call our offices everyday. Instead, we did virtually nothing to address these issues. ”
