Rick Scott says insurance rates have ‘skyrocketed’ since he left Governor’s Mansion and Milton will make it worse

U.S. Sen. Rick Scott said during a Fox Business interview that property insurance rates that have “skyrocketed in the last six years” under his successor as Governor, Ron DeSantis, are “not going to get any better” in the wake of Hurricane Milton’s unprecedented destruction.

Scott had previously voiced insurance concerns, noting last year that high rates were “bankrupting” the state and describing the state’s insurance marketplace as a “disaster,” saying the departure of Farmers Insurance was a “wake-up call” to the state.

The Senator’s Office reached out to note that Scott didn’t use DeSantis’ name in his comments Thursday, but the calendar shows DeSantis has in fact been Governor since 2019 began, which was nearly six years ago.

Milton’s impact suggests those concerns are not resolved, as one prestorm estimate suggested more than $123 billion of property could be affected.

DeSantis, during his presser Thursday, addressed different claims about property damage: a $50 billion estimate brought up by a reporter, but the Governor didn’t want to wade in to that discussion.

“How the hell would a Wall Street analyst be able to know? It’s been dark all day. What are you just going to know that you’re going to do? I mean, like, give me a break,” DeSantis said.

During the Fox Business interview, Scott also addressed White House response to hurricanes, noting that Homeland Security Director Alejandro Mayorkas said the federal government “doesn’t have the money” in the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) to deal with storms.

Scott argued it was incumbent on the feds to fully fund storm response rather than diverting funds to migrant shelter and service, which is controversial on the right, but which FEMA says is a misrepresentation given the money for storms and the funds for immigration impacts are categorized as different budgetary line items.

“They clearly said they don’t have the resources … they used it to help illegal immigrants,” Scott said. “We need to take care of our country before anything else.”