DeSantis defends property insurance bill, signs it into law [Orlando Sentinel]

Orlando Sentinel (FL)

Gov. Ron DeSantis defended the property insurance bill he signed into law on Friday, which bails out insurers but doesn’t provide immediate relief for policyholders, saying it will create more choices for consumers.

“It’s not a question about helping the insurance companies,” DeSantis said at an event in Fort Myers Beach. “What it’s about is creating a market where people are going to want to do business in Florida at all. It’s not about, ‘Hey, we want to help this company, that company.’ We want to have a market that people think is viable.”

DeSantis also signed a hurricane relief bill into law at the event at the Yucatan Beach Stand, one of the Fort Myers Beach businesses hit by Hurricane Ian in September. The $750 million bill includes property tax breaks for properties damaged or destroyed by natural disasters.

The Republican-led Legislature approved both bills during a three-day special session earlier this week.

Lawmakers said the property insurance bill will prop up Florida’s endangered market, which has seen at least a dozen insurers leave the state. But homeowners are still faced with huge premium hikes and canceled policies.

The insurance bill provides $1 billion in taxpayer money for insurers to buy reinsurance, allocates $1.7 million for the Office of Insurance Regulation to investigate bad faith carriers, and forces more people out of Citizens, the state-backed insurance company of last resort, which has seen its policyholders double to 1.1 million over the past two years.

“At the end of the day, the best thing for a consumer is that if you can go out and make people compete for your business,” DeSantis said. “If they have to do that, then they’re going to give you better customer service, they’re going to give you better rates, they’re going to do all that.”

The new law also eliminates one-way lawyers’ fees and a provision that allowed homeowners to have insurance benefits paid directly to their contractors.

“Just understand Florida’s property insurance market was very good for lawyers,” DeSantis said. “Very good. It’s made a lot of people very, very rich. But the question is, is that in your best interest to have a situation like that?”

He added that there would be time next year for the Legislature to do more on property insurance, which has already been the subject of two special sessions this year in May and December.

DeSantis also addressed the resignation of David Altmaier, the head of the Office of Insurance regulation, which came a day after lawmakers approved the insurance bill.

“So that position is open,” he said. “... I would tell talented people that want to get in and be challenged, that this would be a great opportunity for you.”