FL homeowners buried by skyrocketing insurance costs after DeSantis’ handout to big insurers

24 October 2023

Homeowners in Florida are finding themselves on the hook for thousands of dollars more than they budgeted for this year, as home insurance premiums continue their precipitous climb.

According to a new report in Courier Newsroom's Floricua publication, insurance premiums in Florida now hover around $6,000 annually, which is more than three times the national average of $1700 per year, according to the Insurance Information Institute. 54-year-old Arnaldo Pérez-Miró told Floricua that he's considering selling his property due to excessive insurance costs.

"My property insurance almost tripled. That is insane! How can I retire and afford almost $7,000 a year in home insurance?" Pérez-Miró said. "For me and my wife, leaving the home we love, where we saw our children grow, where we made memories, where we’ve celebrated every birthday, every Christmas, is heartbreaking."

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to hold office again?

Floricua noted that these premium hikes came after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis — also a candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination — and his Republican legislature passed an overwhelmingly pro-industry legislative package in May of 2022. That legislation provided both a $2 billion taxpayer-funded reserve for insurance companies to prevent bankruptcy that they typically bought on the open market, and provisions that limited insurers' liability in court. The insurance reform bill also shortened the window of time in which homeowners could file lawsuits against insurance companies, and ended homeowners' ability to recoup attorneys' fees — even in cases they won.

Supporters of the package countered that insurance companies that wanted to access the reserve had to promise to lower premiums, and that insurers' claim of high legal fees leading to rate hikes necessitated the tort reform portion. The AP reported in 2022 that Florida was home to roughly 80% of property insurance lawsuits, despite only 9% of insurance claims nationally being filed in Florida.

The Center for Popular Democracy, a campaign finance watchdog group, noted in a 2023 report that Gov. DeSantis has received large amounts of campaign cash from the insurance industry over the course of his political career. According to the group's findings, DeSantis' campaign and his chief PAC have received nearly $4 million in campaign contributions from big insurance between January of 2019 and March of 2023.

Insurance premiums will likely to continue rising in the Sunshine State due to the likelihood of homes being in the path of future cataclysmic weather events. In fall of 2022 Florida was hit by Hurricane Ian, which the National Hurricane Center estimated cost the state approximately $112 billion in damages, making it the costliest hurricane in Florida history and the third costliest storm in US history (behind Hurricanes Katrina in 2005 and Harvey in 2017, respectively).

(Full disclosure: This author is a licensed flood insurance adjuster and handled dozens of residential claims in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian in 2022.)

From Your Site Articles