On the heels of the flooding caused by Idalia, could insurance companies impose mandatory add-on coverage?

Could insurance companies, to keep their costs down, make windstorm or hailstorm coverage an add-on?

Well, for most immediate coastal residents, windstorm protection already is. But, for the standard policies that now include hurricane wind damage, hail damage and lightning strikes, a proposal to change those to add-on coverage, or endorsements, soon might be on the drawing board.

"There is a possibility in the future that in some areas of the country, you might need to add windstorm coverage or wildfire coverage to your policy. That's possible. But, right now, nobody has made these changes," said Mark Friedlander of the Insurance Information Institute in an interview with WESH-TV.

He said that whatever is proposed, state regulators would have to give their approval, but that it would be highly unlikely if wind damage protection would ever become an add-on in Florida, like earthquake coverage in California is, but not required.

The discussion comes on the heels of the flooding caused by Hurricane Idalia on the Gulf Coast side of the state, as well as the devastating fires in Maui, Hawaii.

Friedlander said what was discovered in Idalia's aftermath was that such a low percentage of homeowners had a separate flood insurance policy, including just 5% of property owners in the stricken Big Bend area.

In addition, he said, "roughly 15%" of homeowners in Florida do not carry any property insurance.

Nationally, the WESH report said, the rate of homeowners without property insurance has nearly doubled in a little over five years.

Allowing insurance companies to cut costs from climate risks only would worsen that situation.

Meanwhile, last Friday, seven private insurance companies were approved by state regulators to begin plucking some 202,000 policies from Citizens Insurance and offering to take them over.

The seven companies are:

Homeowners Choice Property & Casualty Insurance

Slide Insurance

Florida Peninsula Insurance

Monarch National Insurance

Safepoint Insurance

Loggerhead Reciprocal Interinsurance Exchange

Edison Insurance

The private insurers will be able to choose which policies they want, likely going for the least risky and most profitable, and begin making offers likely in late November, according to a report by WPBF 25 News.

If your Citizens policy is chosen by a private company, it is likely your premiums will increase, experts say.

Alejandro Pérez Duque, who directs the PVG Insurance Group on Key Biscayne, said earlier in an Islander News report that: "All markets, including insurance markets, operate better in a free market ... with appropriate levels of regulation, of course."

If a private company does offer to take over your policy and is charging you more, but still less than a 20% increase over what you're paying Citizens now, you can no longer be insured by Citizens, WPBF reported.

It's all in response to changes in rules last December that would open up Florida's market to more companies and trim the excessive number (about 1.4 million) of policies under Citizens' umbrella.

Customers are not obligated to accept a company's offer. The best plan is to speak to your insurance agent and figure out the best move for you, especially if you do have to leave Citizens.

A month ago, Citizens was directed to re-calculate its proposed 12% average statewide increase this year.