Floridians hate to think about property insurance.
For those not actively pursuing claims, a letter in the mail means one of two things: Premiums are going up — or somebody is trying to solicit or scam them.
For 300,000 property owners insured by Citizens Property Insurance Corp., Florida’s publicly owned insurer of last resort, there’s a third and potentially worse option. Inside a bland white envelope is a letter from the insurer, “congratulating” them on being selected to be dumped from Citizens’ rolls.
For some, the exile is forcible. Others can stay with Citizens, which often offers rates lower than comparable market premiums. But for all of them, including some whose only options are much higher premiums, they lose the right to stay with Citizens if they don’t respond by this Tuesday.
That’s not enough time or notice. Legislative leaders must work with Citizens officials to find a way to allow residents to appeal their forced ousters, particularly those who meet the criteria to stay with the public agency but don’t understand they need to take action if they want to renew their Citizens coverage.
Finally, and maybe most importantly, they have to do something to get Floridians’ attention now and let them know the clock is ticking.
The most frustrating thing about this mess is that the fundamental principle makes sense: Citizens is supposed to be the insurer of last resort, not the gold standard of affordable, accessible coverage.
That’s because it’s backed by every insurance policy owner in Florida, and ultimately, the taxpayers.
As the number of policies under Citizens soared, lawmakers became alarmed. At the end of August, there were nearly 1.4 million policies in force, including nearly 139,000 in Broward alone. That’s more than three times the number of policies Citizens was carrying on Aug. 31, 2019. A move to “depopulate” Citizens could greatly reduce the potential burden on all Floridians.
Thus, getting more Floridians covered by private companies makes sense. But forcing them into the arms of companies they’ve never heard of, based on a form they didn’t realize they had a deadline to respond to, is a recipe for outrage and chaos.
The state is already hearing the roars of outrage from Florida policy holders who have figured out what’s happening. After they deciphered their letters — many of which went out later than they were supposed to — many realized they were entitled to stay with Citizens, because none of the companies who had offered them coverage were offering a rate that was low enough to trigger Citizens’ must-drop rule. That cutoff is 20% of the premium Citizens plans to offer each resident as their policies renew, which is also likely to increase — so every policyholder who’s dropped will see a double-dip increase. That makes things even more confusing for policy owners who know how to calculate percentages, but don’t understand that the 20% cutoff is on top of a projected increase in their Citizens premium.
But another group of policy holders has even more cause for anger and confusion. Under state law, the insurance companies participating in the “depop” process can also select policy owners and target them with offers that far exceed the 20% cap. That means their renewal premiums could go up by thousands of dollars unless they can scramble up cheaper coverage elsewhere by the time their current Citizens policies are due to renew.
We don’t understand why Florida lawmakers thought that was a good idea. Letting insurance companies pick their customers, then determine how much they are going to pay for a product that many can’t go without? No wonder those property owners are bellowing as if they’re about to be held up at gunpoint. They are.
But that’s nothing compared to the fury and desperation that will be unleashed when the Floridians who remained oblivious throughout this process learn that their insurance payments are about to go up by at least 20-25%, and potentially much more — effective immediately.
Because there’s good reason to believe that many Florida property owners won’t even glance at the envelopes that carry the bad news. They’re mostly bland white, with no wording describing what’s inside. (We’d have gone with something along the lines of “Hey we’re your new property insurance company unless you act fast, and we may get you anyway! Lucky you!”)
Gov. Ron DeSantis or Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis should insist the Citizens Board extend the deadline again. They should look for any way possible to give Floridians a heads-up that their monthly budgets could take a big hit soon — especially those who have the option of remaining with Citizens if they act quickly. Hire skywriters. Rent billboards. Heck, invade the temple of the holy — and no, we’re not talking about church bulletins (though that wouldn’t be a bad idea, either). We’re talking about hastily taped public service announcements meant to air before the biggest TV audiences over the fast-approaching weekend. We’re talking about football.
The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writer Martin Dyckman and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Editorials are the opinion of the Board and written by one of its members or a designee. To contact us, email at .
