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 flag some recent insurance news for you.
First, and most urgently, if you get your insurance through the state’s public insurance company – Citizens Property Insurance – make sure you check your mail very carefully.
Citizens has been sending letters to about 300,000 customers that contain “offers” to switch to a private company. I say “offers” in quotes because, in many cases, the private insurance will cost much more – as much as 77 percent more in some cases.
And you need to respond to these letters by early October – or you’ll get transferred to the private company automatically. You can read more about this here: Florida Citizens customers: Check mail or face costly insurance switch.
One reason this is happening is because of the industry-written insurance law that Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed through the Florida Legislature late last year. Among other things, that law makes it easier for private insurance companies to raise prices more quickly – while also making coverage through Citizens more expensive.
But while that law has helped insurance companies, it hasn’t done anything yet to help customers or consumers. That’s why we recently held a town hall to discuss the the state’s continuing 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.
Lastly, I recently 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