The Florida insurance crisis is only expected to get worse, according to new data released by insurance analysts.
The Insurance Information Institute predicts rates to soar in 2023 and beyond, going up by as much as 40%.
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Last year, the analyst group tracked a 33% increase. Today, Florida homeowners are paying three times the national average.
These findings come as the American Federation of Teachers released a report, accusing Gov. Ron DeSantis of siding with insurance companies by giving them billions of dollars in bailouts.
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“The insurance companies in Florida had a $2 billion taxpayer bailout,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten. “Ron DeSantis has decided to side with insurance companies and not with Floridians.”
But the non-partisan insurance analyst group doesn’t believe it’s so cut and dry. Mark Friedlander, a spokesperson for the Insurance Information Institute, says there are several unique factors that are driving the state’s insurance rates.
This includes insurance claims litigation, fraud and natural disasters. He uses the example of Hurricane Ian; the second most expensive “insurance loss event” in history.
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“Recent data from Standard and Poor’s shows the Florida insurance industry lost a cumulative $1.5 billion in net income last year,” said Friedlander. “Higher risk state means higher cost.”
Friedlander says half of the state’s insurance companies are at risk of failing; six of them shutting down in 2022.
“Regardless of if they were your insurance company or your neighbor’s insurance company, we all end up paying the freight because of this large volume of failures,” said Friedlander.
Florida lawmakers recently passed legislation that essentially overhauled property insurance, aiming to reduce litigation costs.
But other factors like climate change threaten to keep insurance costs high.
At the time of this news report, Gov. Ron DeSantis hasn’t returned our request for comment.
