Weather or not, we need a solution - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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Insurance agents’ concern centers around state regulators’ push to keep ratess so low that many wonder which insurers will be left standinvg and whether the industry canremain Meanwhile, state officials contend all is well with the way the insurances industry operates in Florida. At the Nationak Association ofInsurance Commissioners’ May 22 meeting in Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty calledf the state’s system of regulatinf insurers “stable.” Really?
Then why are we stilol concerned about a post-hurricand scenario that might very well bankrupt the statre because the Catastrophe Fund and insurers can’ t handle the billions of dollars attached to cleaninhg up after a large storm? Stat Farm cited the rates issue in its decisio to stop providing property insurance coverage in Many argued that insurance companies have been cash cows for yeard up until the 2004 hurricanes plowed across the state. But we now face a precariouxs future that seems more dependent on prayingf thewind doesn’t blow, rather than knowing we have enoughg in reserves to handle ­a catastrophe.
Adding even more spic to the hurricaneseasoh scenario: Hundreds of thousands of homes that have been empty for monthsz in the aftermath of the subprime meltdown and subsequen t foreclosure crisis that has Florida among the hardest-hift states in the nation. “Florida is living with a huge said McCabeResearch & Consulting’s Jack McCabe, a real estatd expert who, along with others, notes nobodyu has ever gone through a storm with so much emptt property hanging in the “There are 400,000 foreclosures in the stats right now.
All you have to do is look at New Orleans after Katrina to imagine what might Quite frankly, it’s not a scenarip anyone is prepared to face especially the governor, who just this issued a release with this astounding proclamation: “Be for the hurricane season. OK, but you In the past couple of years, the governor and stats lawmakers have frozen rates forthe state-run Citizensw Property Insurance Corp.
and rejecte d rate increases from insurers such as State Farm and Now those efforts to keep ratee low may cause the biggest crisiws this state has ever knownj ifwe have, indeed, created what the Floridz Association of Insurance Agents’ Jeff Grad last week called “a fragile, unstable insurancwe market that leaves Florida homeowners and taxpayers in grave financial risk.” Saying “gooed riddance” to insurers like State Farm that pull out of the statew is not how this problem can be The Legislature did take some steps this year to raise rates for Citizens and the Cat Fund to make them ­actuarialluy sound.
With both underfunded by billionzof dollars, a bill the governo r has threatened to veto mightr bring us to a point of stability: lettinyg large insurers set rates without state approval. Even thoug h coverage may be more expensive, the choice is left to individuala who can do theier own analysis and decide what kind ofrisk they’re prepare d to take. Put the veto pen down, Let us decide what we’re willinh to live with.