Expansion of Florida's property insurer of last resort will dangerously shift more of the hurricane risk to businesses and taxpayers, insurance industry representatives warned following the close of the 2007 Florida legislative session.

The Florida Legislature wound up its session with an expansion of the Citizens Property Insurance Corp. by lowering the threshold for policy issuance. In addition, SB 2498 freezes Citizens' rates until Jan. 1, 2009.

The measure puts all Florida residents at risk, according to William Stander, regional manager for the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America. “There are serious consequences to this quick-fix approach to the state's property insurance crisis,” he said in a statement.

The more Citizens' rates fail to reflect the risk at hand, the greater the financial crisis will occur when a major storm hits, he added.

Meanwhile, the measure will encourage further growth in the residual market, according to Cecil Pearce, vice president of the American Insurance Association.

The bill makes it easier for Citizens to compete with the private market by allowing consumers to be covered if a private insurer is more than 15 percent (as opposed to the current 25 percent) higher than comparable coverage from Citizens.

The bill passed unanimously in the Senate and by a vote of 106-10 in the House. Republicans control both chambers.

Also in the final days of the session, lawmakers approved a bill banning future Florida-only subsidiaries of big national carriers and making those in existence now report national financials when requesting rate increases in Florida.

That was pushed strongly by Republican Gov. Charlie Crist and opposed by the insurance industry.

“We share the governor's concern about the property insurance market, but would like to work to come up with a better long-term solution,” Mr. Stander said.

Liz Reynolds, state affairs manager for the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, said prohibiting state subsidiaries will increase the likelihood that national companies will avoid writing property insurance in Florida, thus driving up prices.

But not everything the lawmakers did disappointed the industry.

On May 3, the legislature gave final approval to a new rule requiring homes in catastrophe-prone areas valued at over $750,000 to be fitted with shutters. The bill also authorized improvements to the state's “My Safe Florida Home” program.

“The measures passed by the legislature will allow the 'My Safe Florida Home' program to serve more Floridians and to boost our efforts to educate homeowners about the importance of mitigation,” said the state's chief financial officer, Adelaide “Alex” Sink.

After being streamlined to provide better service and expanded statewide, Ms. Sink said, the MSFH program in April resumed offering eligible Floridians free wind inspections.

More than 50,000 homeowners are on the program's waiting list, and these homeowners should expect to be served by the end of the summer, she noted.

A representative for the governor said, “We look forward to reviewing all these bills when we receive them.”

Meanwhile, in a non-property issue, the lawmakers took no action on extending Florida's no-fault law, thus making expiration in October likely if they fail to take up the issue in a special June session on taxes.

NAMIC's Ms. Reynolds said the move was wise, considering the current system is plagued with fraud and abuse, and the lawmakers seemed in a mood to take action to remedy it.

Special Reports /

Florida Lawmakers Expand Citizens Cover

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