Gov. DeSantis won’t press insurers for lower
rates ahead of 2024 storm season |
Article Courtesy of Florida Politics
By A.G. Gancarski
Published
March 18, 2024
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Florida’s Governor is urging residents worried about
the state’s homeowners’ insurance market to relax and trust reforms
already passed to work, as he sidestepped a question about if he had
plans to sit down with the “insurance industry” and push for lower
rates.
Gov. Ron DeSantis joked that if he could “wave a magic wand,” he’d “love
for them (the insurance companies) to offer you a dollar a year or
whatever,” but added that’s “not how a market works.”
Rather, he noted that seven new private insurers have come into Florida
recently, helping to “depopulate” Citizens Property Insurance, which is
the state’s insurer of last resort. He also said there are “other
companies that are looking to enter Florida’s market,” but didn’t offer
examples.
“Ultimately, you’ve got to have people that want to come in and do
business in the state. They didn’t really want to do that as much prior
to these reforms. I think those reforms have seen more capital come in,
but it’s ultimately a private market and you’ve got to do that.”
DeSantis made the comments in Winter Haven on Friday, in his latest
attempt to reassure Floridians that the shaky insurance market isn’t
poised for collapse.
His comments have run the gamut on property insurance, including an
observation last month that Citizens was “not solvent.”
“We can’t have millions of people on that because if a storm hits, it’s
going to cause problems for the state,” DeSantis said on CNBC’s “Last
Call.”
Other eyebrow raising remarks include how he last year blamed the
Legislature for not implementing insurance reforms he wanted, then
refused to say what those reforms were when asked directly.
DeSantis also made news during a 2023 radio interview with a Boston host
as part of his presidential campaign, when he suggested homeowners
should “knock on wood” and hope the state didn’t get hit by a storm.
Meanwhile, forecasters foretell problems, given the Atlantic already has
heat more typical of May than late Winter.
Accuweather predicts a “blockbuster” storm season, especially given the
fading El Nino pattern that insulated Florida from storms in 2023.
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