As any longtime resident of Florida can attest, 1992 to 2005 proved to be an especially brutal stretch for hurricanes as the state was hit by seven storms ranging in severity from category 3 to 5. In addition to the unimaginable human toll, these storms also caused billions of dollars in damages to homes, businesses, farmland and local infrastructure.
We thought we would take a post or two to check in on some unfinished business. A friend recently asked about the case of the exploding corpse — cue Nancy Drew! — and, when Congress went back to work, we wondered what had happened with the proposed rules regarding access to the Social Security “death master file.” So here we go.
It may look as if the federal government is a classic example of one hand not knowing what the other is doing, but 310,000 people now know or will soon know differently. It turns out that their Affordable Care Act applications or enrollment records do not agree with the records of the Citizenship and Immigration Services division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The ACA only covers people who are in the country legally.
Is there anything easy about insurance? Health insurance has been a flashpoint for controversy for years now. Auto insurance has gone through some tough times, too, especially since the advent of no-fault coverage. Homeowners insurance — most Florida homeowners would likely start any discussion about property insurance by saying, “Don’t even get me started.”
For some reason, when we think about reading the fine print of an insurance policy, a Peanuts strip about Linus reading “The Brothers Karamazov” comes to mind. Lucy asks him if he finds the Russian names to be difficult. “No, when I come to one I can’t pronounce,” Linus replies, “I just bleep right over it.”
As might be expected, there are a few growing pains associated with the Affordable Care Act. The website issues have been documented in the media, but a lesser-known problem involves unfamiliarity with new procedures applicable to both doctors and patients.
We encourage people to read their insurance policies thoroughly, even before they write the first premium check. The policy explains what is covered by the insurance, what kind of event triggers a valid claim, and what portion of the total loss the insurance policy will cover. The challenge is understanding exactly what the policy language means.
Another round of “take-outs” is coming for Citizens Property Insurance Corp. The state-backed insurance company has made some progress in its struggle to move policyholders to private insurers, paring down its rolls from a 2012 high of 1.4 million policyholders to today’s 933, 422. Still, there is a ways to go: Even with the take-outs scheduled to be completed by fall, Citizens will be far from its goal of 650,000-700,000 policyholders.
Most Floridians are well aware of the difference between owning a condominium and owning a single-family house. The owner of a house is responsible for everything that has to do with that property: the house and the yard, utilities, water and sewer, insurance, flood insurance … ad infinitum. The owner of a condo, however, is only responsible for maintaining the individual unit. The homeowners association takes care of the rest.
As we said when we started this series of posts, it is rare to find news stories about insurance bad faith cases. This case, against Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., is remarkable because of the punitive damage award — the $18 million referred to in the headline. That is a drop in the ocean for such a big company (Nationwide reported net income of $1.35 billion for 2013), but, then, the initial claim was worth just $25,000.
