Ike, it\’s easy to say that insurers have made billions over the years and should have it \”stockpiled\” or have squandered it with salaries. Do you have every penny you made over the last 30-40 years? Additionally, home insurance premiums have historically been low over the past years in Florida. In 1997, the insurance on a $200k home w/ pool & cage in Lee County was $380. Insurance companies weren\’t reaping huge profits on policies of this size. If anything, insurance companies were short sighted with their pricing and should have prepared for the 2004/2005 season.
I was wondering if anyone knows if any other state government / legislature has ever tried anything like this before. The reason I ask is because I was wondering if we have any actual information about what the reaction from the insurers was.
Yeah…others tried it before. Number one state that comes to mind is New Jersey. They tried to dictate to auto insurers and then were shocked when all but one or two carriers pulled out of the state.
Unfortunately, Florida\’s elected officials don\’t understand what happened there. But, they will. And it\’s the Florida citizens that will be paying for that insane error for years to come.
Are insurance companies entirely to blame for skyrocketing rates. After hurricane Charley the price to replace my pool cage almost doubled. The cost to replace my roof went from approx. $6500 to $10,000. Crist has singled-out an industry with one of the most unique business models of any indusry – price the product first, incur the actual cost later. If insurance companies would have priced adequately, then rates & reserves would have been higher prior to the last few hurricane seasons. However, consumers wouldn\’t have understood. It\’s human nature to think \”it\’s not going to happen to me\”.
Excellent comments. He\’s totally avoided the fact that Citizens is $1.5b in debt and we\’ve had at least 4 insolvent insurance companies since hurricane Charley. He thinks lower rates will solve the problem? We have a highly concentrated population, building costs that are out of control, and huge exposure to natural disasters. He\’s avoided these issues and tried to solve this with the \”stroke of a pen\”. He\’s not good for any Floridian.
just wondering where I can find a tin hat to match my shoes in case I run into media mogul…gotta stop those evil rays the Bush Admin are loading into the air from getting to my brain stem…
Crist looks very nearsighted on this matter. He just got elected, and he\’s still scared about re-election? Competition is going to dry up; even if you hold carriers hostage this year, which appears to illegal, there\’s going to be nothing short of the very weak carriers willing to enter the Florida market. The weak carriers will figure, \’what the heck, if we go belly up, they can\’t eat us\’…the strong carriers won\’t risk their capital on a losing situation. Don\’t forget the sinkhold issues in Florida, too. Sounds like Florida needs some rational thinking at the top. Just because the citizens think \’this guy will help us keep rates down\’ doesn\’t equate to a rational viewpoint on keeping the system viable and healthy for your state.
This insurance thingamajig reminds me of how polarized we are, we gots the pro-ins flood insurers against the pro-winddamage pay me cuz I had insurance folk; it reminds of of the wal-mart vs union, Iraq war vs surrenderers, vegietariens vs carnievors, and even right vs left…even
reminds me of government; gridlock that is; you got the reds hatin\’ the blues, and the blues hatin\’ the reds; dat\’s why nuttin\’ gets done in Washington; it\’s like the big fish and the little fish; the big fish wants to eat, and the little fish wants to eat, but the big fish wants to eat the little fish, and the little fish doesn\’t want to be eat. See, that\’s like government. What we need is universal flood coverage; put a $500k cap on it, but a 15% deductible; that way you makes flood people take responsibility for some of their loss, but you can provide coverage to the really well off people like me who need extra coverage for their beach property. That, and we should tax gas 50 cents per gallon on top of the current taxes to balance the budget. Thank you for your support.
TAX our GAS another 50 cents. Maybe you can afford it but i can\’t.
I feel for everyone in Florida having to pay for the price increase there. However, the state of Florida is very high risk. You can not expect for the insurance company to stay afloat to pay for your claims if they can\’t have a rate changes.
I live in North Carolina and we are going to have a 5% rate change in our homeowner\’s insurance begining May of 2007. Not because of our claims history but because of the claims activity in the southeastern part of the United States (Florida, Louisianna, Mississippi, etc.)
Our carriers are being more particular about the type of risk we write with them and one company suspended our writing without much of a heads up.
Forcing the insurance company from raising rates is not the answer. Stop building houses on the beach. Stop the building industry from raising the rates on building material and labor. Get the experts (not politicians) on the table to figure out how we can be better prepared for a major catastrophic event.
I\’ll come back in a year and see if your attitude has changed when you can\’t beg, borrow or steal Homeowner\’s insurance because all of the carriers have left the state of Florida.
What we need is National Homeowners Insurance – kind of like that wonderful program known as Medicare… Yeah, right.
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Ike, it\’s easy to say that insurers have made billions over the years and should have it \”stockpiled\” or have squandered it with salaries. Do you have every penny you made over the last 30-40 years? Additionally, home insurance premiums have historically been low over the past years in Florida. In 1997, the insurance on a $200k home w/ pool & cage in Lee County was $380. Insurance companies weren\’t reaping huge profits on policies of this size. If anything, insurance companies were short sighted with their pricing and should have prepared for the 2004/2005 season.
I was wondering if anyone knows if any other state government / legislature has ever tried anything like this before. The reason I ask is because I was wondering if we have any actual information about what the reaction from the insurers was.
Yeah…others tried it before. Number one state that comes to mind is New Jersey. They tried to dictate to auto insurers and then were shocked when all but one or two carriers pulled out of the state.
Unfortunately, Florida\’s elected officials don\’t understand what happened there. But, they will. And it\’s the Florida citizens that will be paying for that insane error for years to come.
MA has caused many companies to exit the State due to legislative involvement in rate setting etc.
Are insurance companies entirely to blame for skyrocketing rates. After hurricane Charley the price to replace my pool cage almost doubled. The cost to replace my roof went from approx. $6500 to $10,000. Crist has singled-out an industry with one of the most unique business models of any indusry – price the product first, incur the actual cost later. If insurance companies would have priced adequately, then rates & reserves would have been higher prior to the last few hurricane seasons. However, consumers wouldn\’t have understood. It\’s human nature to think \”it\’s not going to happen to me\”.
Excellent comments. He\’s totally avoided the fact that Citizens is $1.5b in debt and we\’ve had at least 4 insolvent insurance companies since hurricane Charley. He thinks lower rates will solve the problem? We have a highly concentrated population, building costs that are out of control, and huge exposure to natural disasters. He\’s avoided these issues and tried to solve this with the \”stroke of a pen\”. He\’s not good for any Floridian.
just wondering where I can find a tin hat to match my shoes in case I run into media mogul…gotta stop those evil rays the Bush Admin are loading into the air from getting to my brain stem…
Crist looks very nearsighted on this matter. He just got elected, and he\’s still scared about re-election? Competition is going to dry up; even if you hold carriers hostage this year, which appears to illegal, there\’s going to be nothing short of the very weak carriers willing to enter the Florida market. The weak carriers will figure, \’what the heck, if we go belly up, they can\’t eat us\’…the strong carriers won\’t risk their capital on a losing situation. Don\’t forget the sinkhold issues in Florida, too. Sounds like Florida needs some rational thinking at the top. Just because the citizens think \’this guy will help us keep rates down\’ doesn\’t equate to a rational viewpoint on keeping the system viable and healthy for your state.
This insurance thingamajig reminds me of how polarized we are, we gots the pro-ins flood insurers against the pro-winddamage pay me cuz I had insurance folk; it reminds of of the wal-mart vs union, Iraq war vs surrenderers, vegietariens vs carnievors, and even right vs left…even
reminds me of government; gridlock that is; you got the reds hatin\’ the blues, and the blues hatin\’ the reds; dat\’s why nuttin\’ gets done in Washington; it\’s like the big fish and the little fish; the big fish wants to eat, and the little fish wants to eat, but the big fish wants to eat the little fish, and the little fish doesn\’t want to be eat. See, that\’s like government. What we need is universal flood coverage; put a $500k cap on it, but a 15% deductible; that way you makes flood people take responsibility for some of their loss, but you can provide coverage to the really well off people like me who need extra coverage for their beach property. That, and we should tax gas 50 cents per gallon on top of the current taxes to balance the budget. Thank you for your support.
TAX our GAS another 50 cents. Maybe you can afford it but i can\’t.
I feel for everyone in Florida having to pay for the price increase there. However, the state of Florida is very high risk. You can not expect for the insurance company to stay afloat to pay for your claims if they can\’t have a rate changes.
I live in North Carolina and we are going to have a 5% rate change in our homeowner\’s insurance begining May of 2007. Not because of our claims history but because of the claims activity in the southeastern part of the United States (Florida, Louisianna, Mississippi, etc.)
Our carriers are being more particular about the type of risk we write with them and one company suspended our writing without much of a heads up.
Forcing the insurance company from raising rates is not the answer. Stop building houses on the beach. Stop the building industry from raising the rates on building material and labor. Get the experts (not politicians) on the table to figure out how we can be better prepared for a major catastrophic event.
I\’ll come back in a year and see if your attitude has changed when you can\’t beg, borrow or steal Homeowner\’s insurance because all of the carriers have left the state of Florida.
What we need is National Homeowners Insurance – kind of like that wonderful program known as Medicare… Yeah, right.
W