At hurricane conference, Crist questions insurance bill
by Michael C. Bender | May 14th, 2009From our Eye On The Storm blog:
Gov. Charlie Crist said today a bill to let insurance companies raise property rates outside the control of state regulators “deeply concerns me.”
“I have my concerns about it, to be candid with you,” Crist said. “To not have the office of insurance regulation able to regulate insurance rates anymore deeply concerns me.”
State Sen. Michael Bennett, R-Bradenton, sponsor of the insurance bill, has urged Crist to sign it. Bennett argues that customers willing to pay higher rates to stay with a company like State Farm should have that choice. State Farm announced this year it plans to pull out of Florida after regulators declined its nearly 50 percent rate increase request.
Crist didn’t say much else before he handed out some awards at the Governor’s Hurricane Conference in Fort Lauderdale. The whole press conference last four minutes and 28 seconds.
Tags: Charlie Crist, Property Insurance
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May 14th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
After the recent past hurricanes that maintained wind strength to damage all the way across the state by spawning tornadoes and not just the coast where the hurricane makes landfall there is no reason everyone in the state should not be treated the same when it comes to wind policies. We have friends that live well inland and only pay 10 percent of what we near the coast pay for wind storm insurance yet those same inland homes have had 300 percent more dollars insurance paid out for hurricane damage each time. When it comes to Florida and wind damage no location is a safer than any other. The warm water of the Everglades and Lake Okeechobee can keep a hurricane strong. How far inland did hurricane Katrina damage with winds and spawned tornadoes? I think people confuse storm surge damage with wind damage and use that to confuse the politicians into allowing excessive wind storm rates near the coast.