Ana Ceballos
Republican Sen. Anitere Flores, who represents the Irma-battered Florida Keys, said Friday that property insurance will be the “main” insurance issue she will tackle in the upcoming legislative session.
“I made some promises to myself over the summer that I was going to have a much calmer session this year, and not be in the middle of too many fights, but mother nature had different plans,” Flores said during a panel discussion at the Chamber of Commerce’s 2017 Insurance Summit.
Still, lawmakers predict numerous “headwinds” in passing major insurance legislation this session. Republican Rep. Jay Fant said some of those obstacles include an election year and a state Supreme Court that “is not particularly friendly” toward business groups at the moment.
“As we pull together an attempt to mitigate some of the things we are all suffering from, whether it is workers’ compensation or assignment of benefits, we’ve got obstacles and they are fairly immovable in some respects,” Fant said.
Republican Rep. Danny Burgess, who championed a workers’ compensation bill that passed the Florida House last year, but died in communications with the Senate, was also part of the panel and said he is “hopeful” the House will support legislation on that issue again.
Workers’ compensation rates recently dropped, but many experts who spoke at the summit said they expect them to go up again. That was a concern to Republican Sen. Doug Broxson, who was also part of the panel discussion.
“The reality is we are going to see rate increases and the reality is you are going to find a way to pass those increases on in a form of rate charge,” Broxson said. “That concerns me because many of my constituents simply are not in the position — many of them are in a fixed income — to deal with additional rates without considering other options.”
When the conversation turned to an AOB discussion, names were called. Fant called trial attorneys in the area “corrupt” because they are pushing up costs. One audience members pressed him on the comment and asked if that applied to Republican Rep. Carlos Trujillo, whose firm handles AOB claims.
“There are good attorneys and there are bad attorneys,” Fant said. “Our time spent in Tallahassee fighting this is because of the bad guys who inflate the claims. I certainly wouldn’t make claims that Mr. Trujillo does that, but many of his colleagues do.”
