Lawmakers leave out Citizens Property Insurance issues

But you wouldn't have known that as lawmakers passed bills during a special legislative session last week to try to shore up the industry.

Lawmakers did not make changes designed specifically to address issues such as Citizens' growth and premiums, though parts of the overall legislation will affect Citizens like it does other insurers.

Sen. Jeff Brandes, a St. Petersburg Republican who is one of the Legislature's most-hawkish members on bolstering the private industry, said during a meeting Monday that lawmakers were not doing anything to deal with the "radical growth" of Citizens.

Citizens was created as an insurer of last resort but has ballooned as private companies have shed policies and raised rates to deal with financial losses. As an illustration, Citizens had 851,006 policies on April 30, up from 453,911 policies two years earlier.

Many leaders have long sought to shrink Citizens because of concerns about policyholders across the state — including those who are not Citizens customers — potentially being on the hook to help pay claims if Florida gets hit with a major hurricane or multiple hurricanes.

"The simple truth is if Citizens was a regular insurance company, we would never have let it grow as fast as it did," Sen. Brandes said.

But Citizens is a politically sensitive issue, as many homeowners in areas such as heavily populated South Florida have few other choices for coverage.

Citizens President and CEO Barry Gilway in recent months has repeatedly said that Citizens charges less for coverage than private insurers, at least in part because of a state law that caps Citizens' annual rate increases. This year that cap is 11%, and Citizens has asked the state Office of Insurance Regulation to approve a rate hike of nearly that amount.

Under current law, homes outside of Miami-Dade and Monroe counties that have replacement costs of more than $700,000 are not eligible for Citizens policies. The amount in Miami-Dade and Monroe is $1 million because of a lack of insurance competition in those counties. The proposals this week could have led to expanding the $1 million amount to other parts of the state or at least directing the Office of Insurance Regulation to study the idea.

"Floridians are not being treated equally right now," Rep. Robin Bartleman, D-Weston, said.

The Republican-controlled House and Senate rejected the proposals, which would have been added to the special session's main bill (SB 2-D).

"I think it's topic that we could discuss at another time, but I don't think it helps us in the situation we're in presently," Senate Banking and Insurance Chairman Jim Boyd, R-Bradenton, said after Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book, D-Plantation, proposed a study of the $1 million idea. ¦