The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation heard testimony at a public hearing this week regarding State Farm Florida’s proposed rate increase. The insurance company is asking that the OIR approve an average 28 percent increase for its homeowner policyholders in order to cover the rising costs of non-catastrophic claims.
In our last post, we were talking about the “file and use” and “use and file” rate approval rules. Insurance companies in Florida may elect to use either, but the industry complains that the “use and file” rule is meaningless, because the Office of Insurance Regulation rarely approves the rate change. Insurers must then reimburse their policyholders for premiums collected at the proposed, but disapproved rate.
Last year, Florida lawmakers took a step toward deregulating commercial motor vehicle insurance; this year, some legislators hope to go even farther. A bill that passed out of the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee this week would allow insurance companies to offer a number of different commercial insurance products before the rates are approved by the Office of Insurance Regulation.
An international insurance company is sponsoring a golf tournament in South Florida this weekend, and a group of Holocaust survivors and their families are planning to be there. Not in the stands, though; they plan to be protesting. The company, Allianz, owes them thousands of dollars for insurance claims made by family members who died at the hands of the Nazis. The insurer disagrees.
A settlement between environmental groups and the Federal Emergency Management Agency should put the brakes on development in Florida’s hurricane-vulnerable coastal areas, according to the organizations. In their lawsuit against the federal agency, the National Wildlife Federation and Florida Wildlife Federation had alleged that managers at FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program failed to study specific environmental impacts of coastal developments before approving flood insurance.
Not all insurance providers are created equal. Here are some of the most important things to keep in mind when purchasing homeowners insurance.
The Senate Banking and Insurance Committee began its discussion of SB 805 this week. The bill is the session’s major insurance bill, addressing cancellation of policies, delays in payment and, of course, sinkhole coverage. Florida’s sinkholes dominated the debate.
The Florida Legislature is once again considering changes to the state’s no-fault auto insurance law. The focus of at least one proposal is limiting attorney fees in personal injury protection (PIP) suits. Insurance companies say the current law encourages high lawyer fees in even low-value injury suits. Personal injury attorneys counter that the measure will limit accident victims’ ability to go to court to demand their benefits.
If nothing else, the health care debate has produced some interesting studies. The most recent, released this week, zeroes in on pre-existing conditions. A pre-existing condition is defined as a health condition that exists before a person submits an application for health insurance. In truth, it is one of a list of health problems that require elevated levels of care, either acute or chronic. Insurers are notorious for denying or limiting coverage because of a pre-existing condition — and, of course, because of the costs associated with the condition.
Florida’s state insurance company may suspend coverage for homeowners who have made Chinese drywall claims. According to an attorney representing about 300 claimants, Citizens Property Insurance has started to alert policyholders with the defective building material that their coverage will be dropped.
