Florida Insurance Question May Require Special Session

According to a story by Jeff Ostrowski for the Palm Beach Post ("Insurance Special Session Seen as Likely," 19 October 2006), the Florida legislature is most probably facing a special session to address the problem of rising homeowners' insurance bills in the state, a hotly debated and emotional topic for Floridians.

In a forum hosted by Leadership Palm Beach County, experts from the insurance industry indicated legislators would shift hurricane risk away from policyholders and on to taxpayers to combat the plague of rising insurance premiums in the state.

Chief executive of Plastridge Insurance in Delray Beach, Tom Lynch, said, "The only way rates are going to go down is by government subsidy."

Sam Miller, the executive vice president of the Florida Insurance Council said, "You're going to see insurance premiums come down. I don't know how much."

A possible answer could be the channeling of government m onie s into the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, the state reinsurance fund that saved the insurance market in Florida after the devastation of Hurricane Andrew.

A second choice could be a proposal put forth by Democrats to make the state the insurer of the first $100,000 in windstorm coverage for Florida homeowners.

Although no special session has yet been scheduled, many legislators predicted such a meeting was imminent. Homeowners, however, were warned not to expect too much in immediate relief. Any rate cuts will do little to offset the huge increases homeowners have seen over the past few years with higher than normal storm activity.