There are times when a review of pending legislation about insurance makes us think of the ’60s cartoon, “Underdog.” Our hero saved people from perilous situations with a cry of, “There’s no need to fear! Underdog is here!” The insurance industry has your back, Florida.
In our last post, we were talking about a couple of bills that Citizens Property Insurance Corp. has been lobbying for at the Florida Legislature. One of the bills originally had a provision regarding assignment of benefits for emergency mitigation. The version approved by the Senate — and scheduled for debate toward the end of April — does not include the language, but it’s worth talking about.
We are still talking about litigation costs at Citizens Property Insurance Corp. The state-run insurance company is paying more than $2 million every month to defend itself in policyholder lawsuits, according to research conducted by a state legislator. The lawsuits are over claim denials, and critics are wondering why Citizens is choosing to litigate when paying the claims could cost less.
Depopulation is the wave of the present at Florida’s Citizens Property Insurance Corp. Earlier this year, the state’s insurer of last resort announced that it had shed enough policies to bring the total number of policyholders below the 1 million mark. Citizens hasn’t seen numbers like this since 2006, according to Insurance Journal.
Over our last few posts, we have reviewed some of the higher-profile provisions of the Mendendez-Grimm Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act of 2013 that President Barack Obama signed into law on March 21, 2014. In a flurry of activity after the flood insurance premium hikes calculated under the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012 stunned policyholders in the last quarter of 2013, Congress was able to cobble together a law that reversed many of the provisions of Biggert-Waters.
President Barack Obama has signed the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act of 2013 into law. While both parties supported the measure — the “Menendez-Grimm” law, for short — no sooner was the ink dry on the act than lawmakers began to plan “real” reform. The Tampa Bay News Weekly, for example, reported this week that Florida Congressman David Jolly has introduced a bill that would extend some of the flood insurance reforms in Menendez-Grimm to commercial properties and second homes.
We have a friend who believes that “grandfathering” is the most confusing term used by rulemakers. We suggested she read the tax code for other candidates. The subject came up because we were about to explain more provisions of the Menendez-Grimm Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act of 2013, and grandfathering is front and center.
News sources are saying that President Obama is “set to sign” the flood insurance bill we discussed in our last post. There were whispers of a veto earlier this year because the White House had some qualms about the bill (see our Jan. 31, 2014, post). A report from the Office of Management and Budget had questioned the fiscal wisdom of rolling back the planned rate increases from the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012. If rates did not increase, the National Flood Insurance Program would continue to operate with a significant deficit, the OMB said.
The U.S. Senate has passed the Menendez-Grimm bill, also known as HR 3370, also known as the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act of 2013, also known — informally, at least — as the antidote to Biggert-Waters. After months of wrangling in both the House and the Senate, the bill is finally making its way to the president’s desk, where it may or may not be signed. We have been following the action for the past few months.
We usually talk about consumers’ issues with insurance companies. Flood insurance, homeowner insurance, auto insurance and life insurance — these are topics that focus on Florida residents and their families. In this post, though, we have something for businesses: the fourth-quarter results of Towers Watson’s Commercial Lines Insurance Pricing Survey.
