Will
lawmakers cut your insurance rates?
Property-coverage costs may not go down much,
they say.
|
Article Courtesy of The Orlando Sentinel
By
Published November 30, 2006
TALLAHASSEE
-- Florida lawmakers said Wednesday that they will return to the Capitol
in January for a special session aimed at fixing the state's
hurricane-ravaged insurance market.
But don't count on lower bills just yet.
Lawmakers in the Republican-controlled Legislature
already are warning that they might not be able to offer quick and
significant help to Floridians buckling under the soaring cost of
insurance.
"Is there anything we can do in a special session or regular session
that is immediately going to cut rates by 30 or 40 percent? I don't think
so," said Rep. Don Brown, R-DeFuniak Springs, an insurance agent and
a House point man on insurance issues. "And I think people that would
suggest that to you are being disingenuous."
Outgoing Gov. Jeb Bush on Wednesday sent lawmakers a 231-page draft of a
bill that likely will serve as the centerpiece of the session, which will
open Jan. 16 and is expected to last a week.
The proposal is based on recommendations from a task force headed by Lt.
Gov. Toni Jennings. It includes provisions that would, among other things,
offer insurance companies more publicly subsidized backup insurance, allow
homeowners to forgo hurricane coverage entirely and boost spending on
grants to help people shore up their homes against wind and water.
Far more uncertain is the fate of more-dramatic industry changes,
including a push by lawmakers who represent coastal areas to limit huge
rate increases sought by Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the
state-supported insurance company for people who can't find private
coverage, or a Democratic-backed proposal to make the state more directly
involved in paying claims.
Democrats, who have been calling for an immediate special session devoted
to insurance, insisted that much more is needed beyond Bush's plan in a
state where eight hurricanes caused nearly $40 billion in insured losses
in 2004 and 2005.
"It's really outrageous that it's December and we haven't yet
addressed this issue meaningfully. How many homeowners, how many
fixed-income seniors have lost their residences because of this?"
said House Minority Leader Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach.
Gelber added, "If they [Republican leaders] don't substantially lower
rates, we will declare the session a failure."
Whatever the answer, the state's insurance problems need to be solved,
said Joseph Rayborn, a Lake County resident and Citizens customer who said
he now is paying $1,100 a year to cover his older mobile home on a canal.
"It seems like a rip-off," said Rayborn, 63. "Something's
got to be done."
Brown, who is chairman of the House Jobs & Entrepreneurship Council,
said Bush's proposals will serve as "something of a baseline from
which the House and Senate can work."
Many of those measures already appear to have relatively broad support,
though details still must be worked out. They include:
Allowing private companies to buy more, cheaper "reinsurance" --
that's insurance for insurance companies -- through a state fund.
Insurance executives say soaring reinsurance costs on the private market
are forcing them to raise their own rates.
Doing so, however, would increase the state's risk from another major
hurricane or busy season. When the state fund is tapped out, almost all
lines of insurance -- including property, auto and life -- are assessed to
replenish it, a cost that companies typically pass on to consumers.
Requiring insurance companies to write "plain-language" policies
that include details such as the amount of any premium increase due to
higher rates and the amount due to coverage changes, the amount of an
agent's commission, and any extra charges assessed by the state.
Expanding a state grant program to help people buttress their homes
against hurricane damage, and ensure that insurance companies offer
discounts to homeowners who do so.
Other provisions, however, likely will spawn far more debate and
criticism.
Some consumer advocates, for instance, object to measures that would allow
homeowners to go with less insurance. Ideas include allowing people to
pass on windstorm protection while still purchasing coverage for fire,
theft and other perils, or to buy only enough insurance to cover the
remaining amount of a home's mortgage.
Insurance companies, meanwhile, oppose a plan that
would allow Citizens to sell complete policies all over the state, rather
than offering hurricane-only coverage while private insurers handle
less-risky lines of coverage.
Still, even if lawmakers approve all of the changes, few people predict
big reductions in insurance rates, particularly in the short term.
"There's literally nothing that we can do that would be like pushing
a button and returning rates to where they were prior to the two vicious
hurricane seasons," said Sen. Bill Posey, a Rockledge Republican
leading insurance negotiations in the Senate. "There is not a silver
bullet."
Others vow to push broader -- and more incendiary -- changes when the
Legislature convenes.
Sen. Mike Fasano, a Republican from New Port Richey who represents the
Gulf Coast from Clearwater to north of Crystal River, said he would file a
bill to scrap key pieces of a law the Legislature passed last spring that
ordered Citizens to seek massive rate increases.
The original law was designed to ensure that the public insurer is not
competitive with private companies and that it has enough to pay claims
after a hurricane without charging all Florida homeowners, regardless of
whether they are Citizens customers.
"These provisions need to be repealed; otherwise we're going to have
economic chaos in our state," Fasano said.
Democrats, meanwhile, will renew their push to have the state, rather than
private companies, begin handling much of the windstorm-insurance industry
throughout Florida. They argue that the state, with lower overhead costs
and without a profit motive, would be able to charge far lower rates.
"The private market can't solve it all," said Senate Democratic
Leader Steven Geller of Hallandale Beach.
|