What Should Florida Do to Fix Citizens, Property Insurance? Share Your Ideas

As Insurance Journal has reported, Florida lawmakers are considering the future of the state’s largest homeowners’ insurer, Citizens Property Insurance Corp. It’s supposed to be the insurer of last resort but it’s become the first and only choice for many, given its low pricing and coverage options.

Insurance Journal knows its readers have lots of complaints about Citizens, politicians, regulators, even complaints about insurers. There is no shortage of complaints or finger-pointing.

But let’s move beyond the problems and talk about solutions.

Insurance Journal wants to know what you think should be done to fix Citizens and the Florida property insurance market?

There are no any easy answers— or are there? Is privatization the solution as some have proposed?

Writes one reader:

Simple solutions now exist thanks to recent changes to the law. Change the policy form at Citizens to HO-8 or similar contract and raise the rates to be sound. Make it so you can’t opt into Citizens if you can find coverage elsewhere. Eliminate Citizens contracts from agencies that have no private market capacity.

Recommends another:

Make Citizens wind and sinkhole insurer for the entire state. Do not let them sell anything else. They would collect premium from the entire state and not be concentrated in the high risk areas. All carriers would then want to do business in Florida. And we would have a competitive market.

And a third:

Want to fix Citizens? Remove the legislative requirements and attempt to privatize it.

Those are just a few ideas that have been suggested. We suspect there are many more suggestions out there. And we’d like to hear them from you. They can be big ideas or small ones. Don’t just restate the problems or assign the blame to various parties, that’s been done. Instead, tell us what you think should be done to fix Citizens and the Florida property insurance market. Share your solutions.

Maybe you have an idea that hasn’t already been suggested or you want to endorse one that has already been proposed. Are there 10, 50 or even 101 good ideas out there? Let’s find out.

Please submit your solutions under Comments and let’s see what happens. Remember, solutions, not complaints. Solutions, whether big or small.