A.G. Gancarski
Florida’s Governor is urging residents worried about the state’s homeowners’ insurance market to relax and trust reforms already passed to work, as he sidestepped a question about if he had plans to sit down with the “insurance industry” and push for lower rates.
Gov. Ron DeSantis joked that if he could “wave a magic wand,” he’d “love for them (the insurance companies) to offer you a dollar a year or whatever,” but added that’s “not how a market works.”
Rather, he noted that seven new private insurers have come into Florida recently, helping to “depopulate” Citizens Property Insurance, which is the state’s insurer of last resort. He also said there are “other companies that are looking to enter Florida’s market,” but didn’t offer examples.
“Ultimately, you’ve got to have people that want to come in and do business in the state. They didn’t really want to do that as much prior to these reforms. I think those reforms have seen more capital come in, but it’s ultimately a private market and you’ve got to do that.”
DeSantis made the comments in Winter Haven on Friday, in his latest attempt to reassure Floridians that the shaky insurance market isn’t poised for collapse.
His comments have run the gamut on property insurance, including an observation last month that Citizens was “not solvent.”
“We can’t have millions of people on that because if a storm hits, it’s going to cause problems for the state,” DeSantis said on CNBC’s “Last Call.”
Other eyebrow raising remarks include how he last year blamed the Legislature for not implementing insurance reforms he wanted, then refused to say what those reforms were when asked directly.
DeSantis also made news during a 2023 radio interview with a Boston host as part of his presidential campaign, when he suggested homeowners should “knock on wood” and hope the state didn’t get hit by a storm.
Meanwhile, forecasters foretell problems, given the Atlantic already has heat more typical of May than late Winter.
Accuweather predicts a “blockbuster” storm season, especially given the fading El Nino pattern that insulated Florida from storms in 2023.
42 comments
Ron DiSaster
March 15, 2024 at 12:20 pm
It’s all the corrupt roofing companies that are driving the prices of insurance insane. Yet he won’t even do a single thing to address that issue, and Florida is the only state to have this problem. Kinda weird.
It’s like he’s trying to be grossly incompetent.
Bob Brooks
March 15, 2024 at 4:58 pm
Wrong! That problem was addressed by the legislature and DeSantis signed off on it. The problem is GREED! Insurance companies are greedy. Florida, the land of Casey Anthony still doesn’t get it. Pathetic.
JB
March 15, 2024 at 5:02 pm
Tell us who these roofing companies are. You made the charge against roofers, so tell us who they are ?
Do you know anything about roofing ? Do you know the cost of roofing materials ? Do you know anything about construction ? Do you know anything about business ?
I would say thar you dont.
I pay 10 grand in homeowners insurance annually. 6 grand in taxes. 4 grand for 2 cars auto insurance. And I have never had a claim against any insurer, living my entire life of 70 years in Florida.
I can move if I want. So can you. Insurance is a profit oriented business. I get it. And I have choices. So do you.
Tom
March 16, 2024 at 7:11 am
I got a quote to replace the roof two months before hurricane Ian it it was $56K. Replacement cost was $63K after the hurricane. The pool cage was $22K before Ian and $32K after it. Boat cover was $5,300 before Ian and $6,500 to replace it after Ian. Insurance covered the roof but the other damage was all out of pocket. Feel free to think what you want but we’re getting ripped off and to make matters worse, everytime I turn the TV on, there are scumbag ambulance chasing lawyers who will sue anyone for anything. Just getting rid of them would help. Of course I could move but voting against desantis is easier.
The Depravity Of Christianity
March 16, 2024 at 10:53 am
Defunded & uninsurable.
Arthro
March 16, 2024 at 1:28 pm
You are correct about the roofing companies and public adjusters and lawyers. But, you are wrong about DeSantis not doing anything. DeSantis called for a second special session in December 2022 to adequately address the roof scammers and lawyers and they were successful in passing Senate Bill 2A which will have a significant impact on those who were milking the system. Problem is that on the eve of the new bill taking effect, lawyers files hundreds of thousands of lawsuits under the prior rules, clogging up the courts and leaving insurers in the hook for potentially billions.
DeSantis has been successful in bringing some new insurers into the state since that bill passed. He also got a commitment from State Farm to stay in the market and continue to grow – big deal since they are the largest private insurer in Florida. If he presses insurers for lower rates now, any insurers considering entering the Florida market will hesitate, if not abandon that idea. DeSantis is doing a good job of navigating his way through this mess.
https://www.myfloridacfo.com/Division/ICA/PropertyInsuranceChanges#2A
RVH
March 17, 2024 at 7:36 am
I’m a NWS trained weather spotter. About a year ago I reported quarter size slushy hail in my neighborhood, since it wasn’t solid frozen hail there was no damage to my cars that sit outside no less any damage to the roof of my house. But yet less that a week later, several roofing companies were soliciting door to door implying I probably had roof damage and they will inspect my roof for free to check for that damage and then they tell you that my insurance company will cover the cost of a new roof because there is damage. They even showed me a screenshot of a map pinpointing my report of hail in the area. Low and behold within the span of 3 months approximately 25 houses in my neighborhood had new roofs paid for by the insurance companies. I doubt that any of the roofs that were replaced ever had enough damage to warrant a replacement. It’s not the roofing companies that are the problem, they are part of the overall problem of insurance fraud. As far as I know most of the damage reports were made by the roofing companies to the insurance companies without the insurance companies verifying the lack of damage. I was trying to help the NWS by reporting the hail and instead I was actually helping benefit the roofing companies. And, have you noticed how many roofing companies have popped up recently.
Ron DiSaster
March 15, 2024 at 12:20 pm
It’s all the corrupt roofing companies that are driving the prices of insurance insane. Yet he won’t even do a single thing to address that issue, and Florida is the only state to have this problem. Kinda weird.
It’s like he’s trying to be grossly incompetent.
Cheesy Floridian
March 15, 2024 at 12:29 pm
Doesn’t seem like he wants to really put in the hard work for Floridians and get us lower home insurance. He would rather hold a press conference and continue his war on woke instead of fixing real world issues. He sucks
The Depravity Of Christianity
March 16, 2024 at 10:53 am
Defunded & uninsurable Florida
GARY SALTERS
March 15, 2024 at 12:30 pm
DON’T MEAN TO BLAME THE FLORIDA HOMEOWNERS AND TAXPAYERS BUT THE PEOPLES WHO VOTED FOR THIS MAGA GOP NUT WELL THIS IS WHAT YOU GET A MAGA NUT WHO DO NOTHING BUT TELL LIES AND PASS THE BLAME ON TO OTHER PEOPLE AND THEN TELL THE PEOPLE OF FLORIDA TO KNOCK WOOD AND PRAY THAT THE STATE OF FLORIDA DON’T GET HIT BY A MAJOR HURRICANE THIS SUMMER INSTEAD OF WORKING TO PASS REAL INSURANCE REFORM THAT WILL HELP GET INSURANCE COOMPANY FROM LEAVING THE STATE AND THAT WILL LOWER INSURRANCE RATES FOR HOMEOWNERS HERE IN FLORIDA INSTEAD HE HAVE SPENT THE BETTER PART OF LAST YEAR AND THE START OF THIS YEAR IN IOWA TRYING TO BE THE NEW ORANGE COLOR MAGA NUT THE PEOPLE OF IOWA SAID NO TO HIM NOW THE PEOPLE OF FLORIDA NEED TO SAY NO TO THIS MAGA NUT ENOUGH SAID
Arthro
March 16, 2024 at 1:33 pm
YOU ARE TOO FUNNY. DESANTIS IS THE BEST GOVERNOR IN THE US. GILLUM WAS INVOLVED WITH DRUGS AND OTHER DIRT. CRIST WAS THE GUY WHO CREATED MUCH IF THE FLORIDA INSURANCE CRISIS – JUST ASK NIKKI FRIED. DEMOCRATS HAVEN’T PUT UP A DECENT CANDIDATE IN YEARS.
Christian Nationalist florida
March 18, 2024 at 4:40 am
“Taxpayers”?
You don’t have income tax.
Paul
March 15, 2024 at 12:33 pm
He won’t press them for lower rates…just more campaign contributions.
MH/Duuuval
March 18, 2024 at 8:31 pm
This is how pay-to-play works, and the MAGAs have perfected the game.
Michael K
March 15, 2024 at 1:02 pm
“Not how the market works?” says the governor who has inserted themself in numerous “market” activities in his ill-fated and DeSatrous “anti-woke” nonsense.
How much money is the insurance industry pumping into Rhonda’s purse?
Dont Say FLA
March 16, 2024 at 11:19 am
I’d sure like to check every insurance industry employee’s desk for a personally signed copy of The Courage to Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival that was gifted to them by their employer
Elmo
March 15, 2024 at 1:34 pm
Like Trump, DeSantis does not care about everyday Floridians.
Uninsurable florida
March 16, 2024 at 10:54 am
Chosen by you.
In a landslide.
Florida wants to replace you, not your roof
March 15, 2024 at 2:39 pm
1. The roof matching law is another asinine driver of costs. If a few shingles have to be replaced and because new they look a little different, Florida law requires the entire roof to be replaced, under the insurance policy, to protect “uniformity of appearance” particularly to mollify Home Owners Associations. That is extremely easy to game. The EASIEST fix is to make it a law that people cannot use their home insurance to replace an aging roof due to age or regular maintenance and upkeep, and force regular roof inspections, which are easily free, to assess health prior to storm season every year or otherwise possibly be denied coverage. That is a reasonable demand on the homeowner that should be happening anyway and wouldn’t cost anything. Good for all concerned. The mandatory roof replacement law they did pass was arbitrary, punitive, and nonsensical. We are all paying for that absurdity and it’s an easy fix but why would they want to fix something that practical.
2. Citizens was meant to cover normal, moderate sized homes and costs which could not get insurance elsewhere due to age of the home (especially if age is truly the only issue in a solid, well-maintained home that is up to current codes). The age discrimination could have been addressed by the legislature at ANY time for all insurers. but why would they when they get paid more to discriminate and force unnecessary upgrades and replacements like the absurd new roofing law. As others have said, this could have easily been fixed not by forcing people to replace their roof unnecessarily or be dropped from the policy, but allow the market to handle it with denial of coverage for the roof if they do not, or increase deductibles, etc. The insurance companies are responsible for their own choices and now want to blame policyholders. Now Citizens has become the blank check for homes with replacement (not sale) costs between $700k-$1M and above. So, expensive homes in risky area are covered. Small and moderate, inland homes in non-flood prone zones are absorbing that risk and cost. Insurance spreads the cost around to absorb the risk, meaning you’re paying some for your own risk and a lot for other people’s. Unless and until this changes, the way Florida handles its insurance pools combined with over-development in risky areas, zoning and permitting in areas that have no business being there, inflated home values and increasing demand by people who don’t worry about a $20k insurance bill, this is just going to go on.
3. If you look at Florida home sales for 2024 so far. all sales are down except the >$1M luxury home category, which is accelerating (look it up). This is the MAGA replacement effect. Look at where these homes are being built, and how. We are all paying for that, whether we have Citizens or not, no matter where we are. Those homes should be required to be insured by surplus and other alternative lines. But they just passed a law this session that allows a primary residence to stay on Citizens, rewarding the wealthy and further draining resources and penalizing policyholders. With the laws the way they are now there is no way to stem the demand so costs will continue to escalate. There will likely be an all citizens assessment this year and if not then certainly next year, because Citizens is insolvent. They could have fixed that too but preferred to raid the state reserve funds set aside for catastrophes for legal defense fees for bad laws and other crony projects. They are stealing people’s homes with bad laws that reward the wealthy and punish the working class. Because if you can’t pay your home insurance, and you have a mortgage, the bank takes your house or you have to sell, and you can’t sell without an active insurance policy if there’s a mortgage.
wusf.org/politics-issues/2024-01-16/florida-legislature-bill-raising-citizens-property-insurance-coverage-cap
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Dont Say FLA
March 15, 2024 at 4:42 pm
Rhonda is right that GOP run state insurance markets are not how the market works. They’re how a captive audience works
Bob Brooks
March 15, 2024 at 5:04 pm
Florida, the land of Casey Anthony continues to vote for creatures that want to hurt them. This is known as insanity. For the first time since 1865, not a single Democrat serves in an elected position in statewide office in the land of Casey Anthony. The solution is so simple, create a contributory hurricane fund that the state oversees, problem solved. Rates could also be capped but DeSantis and the right wing sociopaths are owned by the Insurance companies so that will not happen. This is what will now happen. This summer, Florida will once again be pulverized by a major hurricane and more Insurance companies will fold. People will leave the state in droves as the cost of property insurance will cost more than a mortgage payment. DeSantis will destroy the state. Repubs have run the land of Casey Anthony for 20 years. Time for a change you would think?
Uninsurable florida
March 16, 2024 at 10:56 am
Voted for them in a landslide;
Ziegler
DeStupid
Gaetz
JB
March 15, 2024 at 5:23 pm
I never knew how many Marxists hang out here. Its clear you all lack understanding of business, roofing technology, statistics, and our form of government.
Everyone has the right to relocate to lower cost regions. Everyone can leave Florida. If Communism is what you want then Cuba and Venezuala might let you in.
I dont like my living costs one bit. But its not Desantis that designed Bidenomics. Its not Desantis that controls the weather, or cost of materials and labor. He can regulate insurers and there is nothing he can do keep them in Florida. Insurance is a for profit business. Its quite simple. companies that cant earn a profit fail. Its very basic.
MH/Duuuval
March 15, 2024 at 8:36 pm
Perhaps you can explain to a layperson why a so-called “30-yea”r roof is nowconsidered a liability after 12 years by the Florida insurance industry
Cheesy Floridian
March 15, 2024 at 9:01 pm
Well Biden didn’t take office until Jan. 2021 and DeSantis was elected in 2018. Ever since he was elected the first time and 2nd time home insurance and car insurance rates have gone up. He hasn’t done enough to address the problem. He would rather take donations from the insurance companies which is money from paying customers to fund his political dreams. He isn’t fighting for us
Uninsurable florida
March 16, 2024 at 10:58 am
If your ‘sovereign citizen’ cun+s paid merely 1% income tax you’d have a JUA pool for insurance.
Cheapo losers
tom palmer
March 15, 2024 at 5:33 pm
What on earth does Casey Anthony have to do with anything other than the failure of the biggest media/prosecutorial frenzy since the Sam Sheppard case?
Florida has failed to regulate insurance costs, but it sure has keeping any mention of Jim Crow abuses under control in school history classes.
MH/Duuuval
March 15, 2024 at 8:39 pm
The DEI bill is classic: Surgically removed money from racial, ethnic, and LGBTQ offices but kept money for veterans, first-in-family college students, those with physical and mental handicaps.
Uninsurable florida
March 16, 2024 at 10:58 am
She IS everything floridiot
JustBabs
March 16, 2024 at 9:09 am
Desantis needs to give the insurance companies time to move those large profits into their parent company accounts. Then they will claim insolvency when the big storm hits. We are all well aware that his policies will have no effect on rates.
MH/Duuuval
March 18, 2024 at 10:12 am
Took the words out of my mouth. Now, what can be done?
Dont Say FLA
March 16, 2024 at 10:52 am
In good Florida news, the sea level in DC at the Japanese Cherry Trees is up by six feet, regularly crossing over the sea wall and inundating the trees.
How much of Florida is less than 6 feet altitude? PLENTY! And that is good news for the insurance markets. All the beachfront and beach adjacent homes will soon be gone, meaning one last payment to those property owners, and the crisis might then abate somewhat, but only time will tell if rates go down or just stay where they are and the C-suite exec and the stockholders pocket the money saved.
Andrew Finn
March 16, 2024 at 11:13 am
Typical for DeSatan. He must make sure to protect his contributing buddies at the insurance companies. Let the homeowners of Florida continue to pay the insurance companies a lot of money so the insurance companies can continue to “back him”. At least he has to go at the end of his reign this time. We only can hope Florida will survive until then, when a new and real governor can right all the wrongs !!!!!!
ScienceBLVR
March 16, 2024 at 11:17 am
31 years of premiums, never made a claim. Way above sea level on a hill, concrete block home, but… like me, built in the 1950’s. State Farm said your too old and dumped me into Citizen’s lap 5 years ago. I keep waiting for the letter/email saying Tag! You’re it! Dumping you into a strip mall insurance mailbox..
Trickle Down
March 16, 2024 at 11:26 am
GOP run state insurance companies use the trickle down approach to insurance. Accumulate all the money at the top and lets folks wait for it trickle down.
There’s so much money amassed at the top that the trickle down surely has to start soon. Rather, it already started the MAGA movement, but the folks in that movement are misguided by the people that facilitate the movement.
MAGAs just want the promises of Trickle Down Economics to be fulfilled, but the same old leaders who sold them on Trickle Down are still in there and still selling, but they shifted their sales strategy to blaming “elites’ and “democrats” and the “welfare state” for taking all the money.
The facts are, however, it’s the C-suite folks and the boards of directors and the wealthy stockholders who have all the money and they aren’t paying one dime into any welfare state. They just keep the money for themselves.
The trickle down will commence as soon as the hundred+ millionaires and billionaires become the targets of the Tiki Torch and AR-15 crowd which, sadly, is still convincingly conned into blaming other poors for their own problems.
University of North Florida
March 16, 2024 at 12:27 pm
3.9 million in campaign contributions. That simple
R
March 18, 2024 at 9:53 am
Must have free enterprise… therefore, open auto insurance to cross state lines and encourage homeowners to create group insurance, even as a back up. Its all about competition. Stop with
wanting the gov to pay. The gov is already TOO CORRUPT
MH/Duuuval
March 18, 2024 at 10:14 am
We’ll get excellent, quick service from a Spokane agency.
John L
March 18, 2024 at 10:15 am
DeSantis started out as a moderate and I approved of his first year or two in office. Then he got right wing MAGA crazy and stopped doing anything but political theater stunts to set up a run for president to the right of trump and thats when he lost me. He has been MIA the past year for Floridians and if we had recall power, he would be a goner.
John L
March 18, 2024 at 10:16 am
DeSantis started out as a moderate and I approved of his first year or two in office. Then he got right wing MAGA crazy and stopped doing anything but political theater stunts to set up a run for president to the right of trump and thats when he lost me.
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