Jesse Scheckner
Florida is now well into hurricane season. To better help residents with property insurance problems and preview what may come of the issue, Senate Democrats are kicking off a new town hall-style webinar series.
The goal, said Florida Senate Democratic Caucus Communications Director Jossie Barroso, is to “bring lawmakers, experts and the people together to hear from and inform the public, and provide real solutions to help Floridians.”
The interactive three-part series starts at 6 p.m. Wednesday, July 26, live on the group’s Facebook page with “Homeowners Insurance 101: A Guide for Insurance Coverage.” Participants include Senate Democratic Leader Lauren Book of Davie, Senate Democratic Leader Pro Tempore Jason Pizzo of Hollywood, and Paul Handerhan, president of the Federal Association for Insurance Reform.
Additional members of the caucus and experts on the subject will be announced as the event draws nearer. “Members of the public and the press will be encouraged to actively participate, share experiences and ask questions,” Barroso said by email.
The second webinar — titled “Insurance Crisis: Is There an End in Sight?” — will kick off again at 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 17. Five days later, at 6 p.m. Aug. 22, the third will occur, titled “Your Tax Dollars at Work: State Resources.”
Details about the latter two events are pending.
The Democrats’ webinar series on property insurance comes shortly after another insurance company, Farmers Insurance, informed the state it was dropping home, auto and umbrella policies across Florida.
In the past 18 months, seven insurers went out of business, 15 stopped offering new policies, and four, like Farmers, left the state. Eighteen others are on the state regulator’s watch list — down from 24 last year.
That’s despite multiple Special Sessions on property insurance by the Republican-dominated state Legislature and several measures Gov. Ron DeSantis has since signed to address the issue.
Last week, the Governor urged patience for homeowners stuck in what he called a “challenging market” and predicted insurers would return to the Sunshine State after this year’s storms come and go.
Until then, he said, the state and the estimated 100,000 policyholders Farmers is dropping — of which 5,835 held residential policies as of Dec. 31 — will have to depend, in part, on luck.
“Because we did those reforms, it now is more economical for companies to come in, (but) they’re going to wait through this hurricane season (to) deploy more capital to Florida,” DeSantis said. “Knock on wood, we won’t have a big storm this summer.”
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Editor’s note: This report was updated to state how many of Farmers’ policies in Florida are for residential properties.
8 comments
TJC
July 20, 2023 at 12:42 pm
I’ll bet Governor Woodknocker is hopping mad that these upstart Democrats are actually trying to help Floridians with a very real problem. He prefers his made-up problems, like drag shows and books that need banning, where he gets to shape the “threat” narrative all by himself, apart from reality.
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Datahound6
July 20, 2023 at 4:37 pm
looks like spam to me
Dont Say FLA
July 20, 2023 at 3:15 pm
Politicians? Paying attention to issues their constituency cares about? What is this, California or something? Rhonda says that sort of Wokeness is not allowed in Florida!
Datahound6
July 20, 2023 at 4:56 pm
The one policy change that would most quickly solve the homeowner’s insurance and auto insurance availability problems would be to completely deregulate rates. I bet that agencies [many online] would quickly spring up to automatically shop insurance for Florida’s homeowners and drivers about 45 days prior to every policy expiration — thus assuring us that we’d get the lowest rates available.
Bill Pollard
July 20, 2023 at 5:32 pm
Let insurance companies charge whatever they want through deregulation? Rates would double, triple, quadruple in a matter of weeks.
Too Chez
July 22, 2023 at 10:34 pm
A webinar? This has to be a joke. LMAO
Dont Say FLA
July 24, 2023 at 10:13 am
Is it a joke? Yes or no, either way, it’s more than Rhonda’s got.
Comments are closed.