Last week, we offered you the top 10 states ranked friendliest to P&C insurers and consumers when it comes to the state's regulatory environment. As with all things, though, with the good comes the bad.

This week, we revisit the Heartland Institute's report to take a look at the 10 states deemed to have the worst insurance regulatory environments based on two factors: how free consumers are to choose the P&C insurance products they want, and how free insurers are to provide the P&C insurance products consumers say they want. Whether it's because of overly intrusive government, uncompetitive markets, or ratings practices, these 10 states are the unfriendliest to both the industry and consumers.

Follow along as we start at the bottom and look at the 10 states that earned the worst evaluations, including their grade, overall score, and commentary from study author and Heartland Institute Vice President of Washington, DC Operations Eli Lehrer, who explains each state's ranking in the captions that follow.

To download The Heartland Institute's entire study, click here.

As it has every year since Heartland began the report card, Florida gets the worst possible grade. Under the guise of the Florida Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, the state has largely taken over the property insurance market and maintains a regulatory system that has resulted in high rates and a retreat of well known, well capitalized private carriers. The enormous size of both Citizens and the state-run reinsurer, the Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, leaves taxpayers with a multi-billion liability. Not all the news is bad, though. In the last few years, long-serving Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty—still a bête noire to much of the insurance industry—has become a cautious advocate for reform. Even with Gov. Charlie Crist out of office, however, legislators have blocked almost all significant market-freeing proposals.

Special Reports /

10 Worst Regulatory States for P&C Insurers

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