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The Gainesville Sun: Time to tackle Citizens Insurance shortfall
Monday, November 21, 2011
Time to tackle Citizens Insurance shortfall
I commend Gov. Scott and the Citizens Property Insurance Board for tackling Citizens’ overexposure to protect the state’s taxpayers.
Unfortunately, due to policies pursued by Gov. Scott’s predecessor that were rooted more in political calculation than common sense, Citizens was expanded well beyond its intended purpose of providing coverage for people genuinely unable to find coverage in the private market. It is now Florida’s largest insurer without the ability to collect enough money to cover the additional risk.
If Citizens fell short by millions or billions of dollars after a hurricane, the state’s taxpayers would be forced to bail it out through massive taxes on every policy.
Another major threat to Florida’s financial future is the over-exposure of the Florida CAT Fund, which the Legislature would do well to scale back sooner rather than later.
Christian R. Cámara,
Director
Florida Insurance Project
The Heartland Institute
Tallahassee