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Bush OK's Reform to Aid Homeowners: As Gov. Bush Signed an Insurance Reform Bill, Some Lawmakers Proposed Out-of-the-Box Solutions for the State's Insurance Crisis

Posted on: Wednesday, 17 May 2006, 06:07 CDT

By Beatrice E. Garcia, The Miami Herald

May 17--Gov. Jeb Bush signed a massive insurance reform bill into law Tuesday that attempts to stabilize the state's insurance market and provide a smidgen of relief for beleaguered Florida homeowners.

Yet many lawmakers and industry experts concede the new law isn't perfect. Some say it's time to consider some out-of-the-box solutions for the state's insurance crisis.

The bill, which lawmakers began working on as South Florida was still cleaning up after being walloped by Hurricane Wilma last fall, contains "tough choices," said Bush, but "it will help sustain a private insurance market over the long haul."

Critics of the new law say it fails to lower insurance costs for consumers. Some believe it gives the insurance industry too much power and guts the authority of the state's Office of Regulation, which oversees insurers.

One controversial provision in the new law allows insurers to raise rates an average 5 percent statewide and an average 10 percent in a region without regulator approval.

The new law does appropriate $715 million to pay down a portion of Citizens Property Insurance's $1.7 billion deficit for 2005. This reduces the assessment on all Florida homeowners to about 2.5 percent this year and a smaller 1 percent assessment spread over 10 years. Homeowners had been facing an assessment up to 20 percent or $200 per $1,000 of premium.

The bill also extends a helping hand to homeowners by setting up a $250 million fund to provide low-cost loans that can be used to make homes more storm-resistant. Details of the plan have not been worked out yet.

Supporters hope this law will bring new insurance companies to Florida, a state that has seen insurance companies pull back dramatically. Last week, Allstate Floridian announced it would drop 120,000 home and condo policies, including 34,500 in South Florida, starting later this year.

To help insurers, $250 million from state coffers will be used to provide surplus loans to insurers to help beef up their capital. The insurers would be required to match state funds with capital from private sources.

Yet the new insurance measure does very little to lower insurance costs for consumers. In fact, Citizens policyholders will see steep rate increases on top of assessments.

Last week's news that State Farm, Florida's biggest home insurer, is seeking to raise rates an average of 70 percent for home and condo owners is propelling some lawmakers to call for yet-untried solutions.

"Availability is critical, but so is affordability," says Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach.

Sen. Steve Geller, D-Hallandale Beach, says there have to be other fixes for the insurance crisis besides just raising rates.

A group of Democratic lawmakers, with support from the Florida Association of Independent Insurance Agents and the Consumer Federation of America, have proposed statewide windstorm insurance that would cover the first $90,000 of damage. Insurers would cover $10,000.

It's a novel approach. Unlike the national flood insurance program, where homeowners pay for up to $250,000 of coverage and deficits are made up by the U.S. Treasury, the Democratic proposal sets a limit on the amount of risk such a statewide fund would take on.

Rates would be set at levels to adequately cover a major storm hitting a densely populated and developed region such as South Florida. But there would be cost savings because the cost of running Citizens, the state-run insurer of last resort, would be dramatically reduced.

Under such a scheme, private insurers will sell homeowners extra coverage, above the $100,000. Insurers say they would be willing to sell such coverage because their risks would be more limited.

Geller also says data shows that the bulk of claims from a storm are under $100,000.

Citizens, on its way to being the state's largest insurer of homes, apartments and condo units as it absorbs many of the more-than-300,000 policies that will be dropped by the three insolvent Poe Financial Group companies, would be left with very few policies. Some could be sink-hole coverage or deteriorated high-risk homes that the private insurers don't want to cover.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Miami Herald

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Source: The Miami Herald

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