Dear Friend,
Our legislative office hears almost every day from Floridians who are seeing their home insurance rates skyrocket to completely unaffordable levels – and, in some cases, losing their home insurance altogether.
With that said, I wanted to make sure you saw this latest story from Newsweek focused on property insurance in Florida.
According to a SelfStorage, Florida was the number one state in the country that people moved to in 2022, but it was also a state with the highest number of residents wanting to relocate.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, an estimated 275,666 people left Florida in 2022—nearly 23,000 people every month. Most, according to the bureau, relocated to places like Georgia (46,884), North Carolina (42,301), Tennessee (36,200), South Carolina (31,456) and Texas (29,975).
The state’s insurance premiums, which are the highest in the country according to a recent study by the Insurance Information Institute (Triple I), are also one of the reasons Floridians are considering leaving the state, as many can no longer afford insurance on their homes.
This is a crisis that deserves our attention, but unfortunately my colleagues across the aisle seem hesitant to take action, with one even saying that we’ve done enough to address property insurance.
I disagree, and as we approach legislative session this January I really encourage you to consider contacting your lawmaker and ask them to prioritize the property insurance crisis. Click here to identify and contact your state lawmakers.
I also wanted to let you know that we recently hosted a virtual town hall to discuss the the state’s insurance crisis – and other potential policy solutions. We were joined by Representative Hillary Cassel, one of the insurance experts in the Legislature, and Paul Henderson, the president of the Federal Association of Insurance Reform.
You can watch that town hall here.
I also did an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) event on Reddit, where I answered dozens of questions from folks. By far the most common topic was property insurance, so we ended up diving deep into the issue there. We even won a few skeptics over with our policy suggestions!
You can read the entire Q&A here.
Property insurance is one of the biggest challenges facing Florida right now. We are committed, especially as we get back to Tallahassee in 2024, to keep fighting for solutions that benefit everyday people.
Onward,
Rep. Anna V. Eskamani