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Competition, plans needed in insurance game
By Carol A. Kemp
Letter - September 3, 2006
There are 115,000 foreclosures in Florida, and
4,100 of them are in Pasco County.
On Aug. 12, I attended a local Homeowners
Against Citizens Insurance meeting. After asking a couple of key questions, I
walked away from the meeting with some thoughts about the insurance problem:
1. Citizens Insurance is not the problem. The
problem is that we no longer have free trade in Florida as it relates to the
insurance industry. The former major carriers have decided not to offer their
lines of coverage. Prior laws were set up that created obstacles for new
insurers to do business in Florida.
The major players had access to a catastrophic
pool of funds to supplement their claims. The unregulated companies don't, and
they bear all losses. There was a monopoly of players who no longer have an
interest in writing. There is a lot of legislation on the book that holds back
any new insurance companies from writing in Florida.
We need the former major players back as well
as needing new insurance companies (meaning new to Florida) writing in Florida.
We need competition back in the insurance industry in Florida.
2. We need to fight Pasco being the No. 2 rate
category. Here is a portion of what I said in an e-mail I sent out last week
prior to going to this meeting: "I know we have sinkhole risk but you can't tell
me that we are the center of the universe for high risk areas when hurricanes
hit Pensacola and South Florida areas, for example, on a regular basis."
We can moan and groan, we can ask for change,
but we need plans. It is my understanding that Monroe County (No. 1 rate
category) has hired a private attorney to fight the rate. I believe that Pasco
County needs to right the rates being charged here. I believe Pasco County
should hire an attorney in the same sense as Monroe County.
3. Insurance companies that write business in
Florida should not be able to pick and choose which lines of insurance they
write. If they write homeowners (insurance) and they do not want to write it in
Florida, they should not write auto or other lines. In some other states,
insurance companies are not able to pick and choose the lines of insurance they
write.
Carol A. Kemp, Holiday
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