The Crisis at Hand: Covering Florida Homes
Miami Herald
April 16, 2006

Home insurance rates are going through the roof. Insurers are dropping hundreds of thousands of policies. The state-run insurer of last resort is deep in the red, and so is the state's hurricane catastrophe fund.

Nearly 14 years after Hurricane Andrew left Florida's insurance industry in tatters, the state is facing another crisis that, by many measures, is worse.

With only three weeks to go in the Florida legislative session, lawmakers are making a valiant effort to come up with fixes. A consumer group wants the state to be the windstorm insurer, and there are calls for a national catastrophe fund.

It's time for ''tough medicine,'' Senate President Tom Lee said.

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A nonprofit group, Americans for Insurance Reform, has another approach in mind: The state should provide all windstorm insurance.

The group claims that a state-run system would provide lower prices and that coverage would be available to all consumers.

''This plan would eliminate both the profit motive as well as overreaction at times of crisis, lowering prices and assuring both stable prices and coverage,'' said Robert Hunter, director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of America, who helped author the plan.

For a copy of the complete article, contact AIR.