Florida has a significant interest in keeping real estate insurance affordable since real estate generates one-fifth of the state GDP. And, for obvious reasons, hurricane insurance underlies the political and economic structure of the state. The problem with keeping subsidized insurance low through state-owned Citizens Property Insurance, however, is that the economic costs are not collected upfront, but redistributed afterwards. And since Citizens has premiums 30-40% lower than private carriers, the risk is that Citizens will continue to undermine private players – six have already gone insolvent this year alone – leaving the state holding the bag. It’s time to let market forces set hurricane premiums.
Originally posted for the Orlando Sentinel’s Central Florida 100.
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