Friday, January 05, 2007

Insurance Lobby - Vows to Fight!

From today's Palm Beach Post, it appears our new governor (in his first week of office) is getting a cold splash of reality.

' TALLAHASSEE — New Gov. Charlie Crist's campaign vow to lower property insurance rates Thursday ran smack into the real world of the insurance lobby.

"If we create more regulations, more mandates, and rate rollbacks, then we will have even fewer companies willing to do business in Florida," said Barney Bishop, president of Associated Industries of Florida, an influential umbrella lobbying group that includes property insurers.

The group staged a news conference Thursday to say it would be following the developments in the special session that is to begin Jan. 16 and would oppose legislation that requires rates to be reduced.

"We believe rates have been suppressed," Bishop said. "And we believe that rates are going to have to rise to the current level to (give incentives to) insurance companies to be in Florida."

Crist, who in his inaugural address Tuesday said that it was time "to rein in overreaching insurance companies," said he was astonished to hear Bishop's assessment.'

Should we be astonished that Charlie is astonished? Hey, here's an idea: let's SUBSIDIZE these poor folks in the IL (insurance lobby)!

'Bishop, speaking for a Florida Hurricane Crisis Coalition made up of Associated Industries members, said past elected insurance commissioners and the current appointed insurance commissioner, who answers to the elected governor and Cabinet, are too sensitive to political pressure.

He and his group instead suggested that Crist and lawmakers should make it easier for insurers to obtain subsidized "reinsurance" - the financial backing to pay for massive claims from a catastrophic storm - from the state; that the state spend $500 million a year to help Floridians harden their homes against storms; and that homeowners be permitted to buy hurricane insurance with 10 percent or even 20 percent deductibles in return for lower premiums.'

A few thoughts:


  1. I can't believe they have the gall to ask for free money from the state.

  2. With that outrageous proposal in consideration, enquiring minds want to know how much the IL collected as a whole, from Florida homeowners in 2006.

  3. The idea for "home hardening" is a great concept, but in reality, it's just another subsidy for the IL.

  4. The last suggestion is a good one - but how do you prove that granny has $60K in the bank to cover the deductible on her $300k home (the one she bought for $75K back in 1982)?

  5. If a company doesn't offer home insurance, they shouldn't be allowed to offer any other form of insurance (as in the highly profitable auto insurance), period. The IL's claim of "you'll chase all the insurers out of the state" is anectdotal CRAP. Not based on fact, not based on anything but their collective money-grubbing hive mentality.

  6. Where are the proposals from Crist to eliminate Citizen's?

Full Article

31 comments:

Anonymous said...

Crazy says the Insurance Companies are voting with their feet.....[walking out of here].....

It's happening in "ALL" coastal states.....from Texas to New York.....

People can rant and rave all they want, and pass legislation to the moon....

AND IT AIN'T GOING TO CHANGE A DAMN THING!!!!

>>>>>"""THE NUMBERS DON'T ADD UP"""<<<<<

Housing prices are to high, and the weather has become more teacherous......

THERE IS ""NO"" EASY SOLUTION TO THIS PROBLEM....."""JUST MAYBE"", THERE IS NO SOLUTION AT """ALL""""

Anonymous said...

Solution:

1) Rent
2) Relocate to non-coastal area.

I know, I don't want to move, but all I am doing by staying in S. florida is paying until its choking me so some other guy can get richer.

Anonymous said...

Hey, if I was an insurance creep, I'd be doing the same thing - crying all the way to the bank.

But do they have to be so shameless about it?

A: It's just not in their nature.

And if they can't make a profit, why don't they just up and leave?

A: Because they are VERY profitable, and will be even more so if they can convince their buddies in the capital to "take care of them".

Anonymous said...

WELL!!!! We're winding up our holiday getta way over here in Destin, Fort Walton.....

But, I just had to pass this on, as it relates to the earlier posting here about insurance.....

Coming across the small channel bridge from Fort Walton, to Destin area, looking south down the channel, you'd notice about 5 multi-storied condos, sitting just feet from the channel right away....maybe 3 feet above the water line....
The whole bunch of condos, are sitting on a sand spit, that could be washed COMPLETELY away with a tidal surge....

PEOPLE ARE JUST STUPID....AND AS A FLORIDA HOME OWNER; YOUR PAYING FOR IT IN INSURANCE PREMIUMS.....

WHY WOULD ANYBODY BUILD THERE, WHY WOULD ANY COMPANY INSURE THAT?????

>>>>JUST PLAIN STUPIDITY<<<<

Anonymous said...

Crist was quoted in the article the Sarasota Herald-Tribune ran as not caring whether the insurance solution was private sector or public sector, as long as the rates came down. That was an astonishing and welcome burst of economic open-mindedness for a Republican. Barney Bishop's vaunted free market system has gutted our industrial base, stagnated wages, deprived 40% of the population of basic healthcare and set the stage for catastrophic climate change. If you want a little hair of the dog, just give the keys to the kingdom to Barney and his IL buddies.

Having said that . . . crazy is probably right. With housing prices at bubble levels and the weather growing more treacherous, the numbers may not add up. A direct Katrina-style hit on Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm or Tampa/St. Petersburg would create devastation exponentially exceeding the state's annual budget, much less its catastrophic fund. To amass a large enough fund to cover a catastrophe of that magnitude, you need access to global or at least nation reserves. That's why Crist is hoping and praying for a national catastrophic fund. But that is never gonna happen. Why should taxpayers in landlocked, energy hungry states pony up for Florida's stupid coastal development when we fight to keep them from filling their tanks with Gulf of Mexico oil?

Still, a public state catastrophic fund has sentimental appeal. If the fund were public, then at least in calm years the money would earn interest that accrued to Florida residents rather than being shipped off to fund some grossly overpaid CEO's multimillion dollar salary and retirement plan. But for it to work we would need to get awfully lucky with the weather over the next, say, 10 years. Florida may have pushed itself beyond the threshold of economic viability - Paradise Lost, quite literally.

Anonymous said...

>>>PEOPLE HAVE SHORT MEMORIES<<<<

30 years ago, or so, Florida was a cheap place to live......

You could buy a house in Century Village, and enjoy your retirement, in a place like Brinney Breezes, etc......

In traditon of the American way, we ALWAYS have to make things bigger and better.....

NOW, starter homes are $500K, and McMansions are $1.5 Million + , etc.....

Used to be a 2/1 CBS house was sufficent a home.....now 4/3 is a vacation house......

Back then, debt was abored; now it's embraced......Back then, you needed 20% down Minimum, now you get 115% financing....

SOME WHERE ALONG THE LINE, WE FELL OFF THE TRACK....

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Anonymous said...

Soo!!!!

>>If an insurance company doesn't offer home owners insurance, it shouldn't be allowed to offer other forms of insurance??<<<<

||||IS THAT THE QUESTION?? ||||

The other Question then is????

WHAT ARE ALL THE GOLFERS GOING TO DO, """IF """" THEY CAN'T BUY 'HOLE IN ONE INSURANCE'....

Then we would really have a crises!!!!!

geilt said...

I cant afford a home. Even if my wife and I are making 90 k combined a year, it just doesnt seem feasable. We'd have to live off of Bowl Noodle soup (without veggies) and ride our bikes 20 miles to work. At least...we'd have to do that If we didnt want to increasingly fall into insane debt as the months tick away our money due to interest rates.

I dont have any debt, I actually have savings...I rent a space from my parents (who are kind when it comes to monthly payments)but i fear that day when itll all just go poof and ill forever be paying some large coproation more money than i can make in a month, and eventually to lose out on my property value and pay for something thats not worth it.

There is a general sense of hopelessness that I find when I think of owning a home. I dont want to live in a Condo, I dont want to have paper thin walls where I can hear the bedposts of my neighbors.

Just a small home near my school and work...

Guess i have to dedicate my life to swindling or something to make the cash to live in a shack somewhere between NW 36th and SW 40th in Miami.

Eventually we'll have an entire block of houses all empty, and 1 house at the end of the street (in the most unconvenient location on the block) with 14 or more families living together.

Anonymous said...

Advice to Alexander:

Read your history book, my friend....
This type of mania has happened before, and in all probablity, it'll happen again.....

1926 was a boom year for Miami, as it is today.....save your cash....$30,000 will get you into a nice house in 2-5 years....
Somebody will be begging you to buy their nightmare!!!!!

Anonymous said...

I just read in the Palm Beach Post, what the politicans are proposing to do about Florida's insurance crises....

Crazy's 'take' on it, is it's just like putting a band-aid on a broken arm....it assuages the pain, by reducing rates, but gives you less coverage!!!

Citizens Insurance [Goverment Sponored Entity] will be able to offer burglary, and fire also.....

In all probablity then, 'next year', they'll offer car insurance also....

>>>>THEN THEY CAN TAKE THE LOGO FROM STATE FARM'S """YOU'RE IN GOOD HANDS""" WITH FLORIDA'S CITIZENS<<<<<

Then we'll have "EVERYBODY" moving here to buy all those expensive empty houses...

WE'll all be saved by a politican????

HUUHHH!!! Did Crazy just say that?????

Anonymous said...

Man, this warmer winter has me worried (excuse the inadvertant alliteration).

Cooler Gulf of Mexico = Less Hurricanes (see most of the 1990's, 2006)

Warmer Gulf of Mexico = More Hurricanes (see 2004, 2005)

If things don't cool down soon, we're in for another crappy Hurricane Season.

Good luck to all.

Anonymous said...

Earthquake insurance has a 20% deductible, and it doesn't cover a lot of things like fences and pools and landscaping. That's a 20% deductible on your house only. To collect, your house has to basically be totally destroyed.

I thought Florida wanted to be the "new California" -- and now you can be!

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Home Insurance said...

I am a home insurance agent and I know first hand the situation is getting worse. Each year since 2008 florida home insurance rates have increased for my customers year after year. If you live on the east coast of Florida good luck! Rates are so expensive for Florida home insurance

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