PHOTOS: Citizens Property Insurance logo above a photo of a damaged home in Florida (AP/Getty Images)
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – It’s a legislative proposal that promises property insurance premiums will drop like a rock.
House Bill 1213 would radically change the mission of Citizens Property Insurance from a state insurer of last resort to a first choice for storm coverage.
State Rep. Spencer Roach, a Lee County Republican, is a Hurricane Ian survivor. He says Florida’s insurance companies have failed him, and all his neighbors, so he teamed up with a Democrat to draft a bill that would make Citizens the preferred provider of storm coverage.
Four days after Ian, Deputy Roach was documenting the damage to his home in Fort Myers.
“This is the main room here… You can still see the water on the deck,” he said in a cell phone video.
The storm brought at least 18 inches of water.
“I’ve got doors that are starting to warp from the water,” he said.
Recovery took months.
Roach says his insurance company, UPC, harassed him, and then they went out of business.
“This has probably been one of the most challenging years of my adult life,” he said.
His neighbors too.
So Roach, a Republican, and state Rep. Hillary Cassel, a Democrat, began brainstorming ideas. How can you lower prices and ensure claims are paid in full?
“I have something I think, if I can be that bold, as a solution to this crisis,” Roach said.
This week, the duo introduced HB 1213, which would fully restore Citizens’ Purpose.
Right now, if you can’t get coverage on the private market, you go to state-owned Citizens, which protects homes from storms, fires, theft, etc.
If this bill becomes law, that will change.
First, citizens will only provide coverage for wind storms. Then Citizens will no longer be your insurance company of last resort, but will be an option available to all of us, offering cheap rates to everyone.
“Think of this as the National Flood Insurance Program, but instead of the federal level, it’s at the state level, and it only covers wind damage instead of floods,” Roach said. “Florida will at some point embrace the idea of universal wind coverage.”
Insurance industry insiders tell 8 On Your Side it’s a terrible idea that could bankrupt the state.
Citizens did not respond to our request for comment, but in recent years they have been trying to shrink, not grow.
“You model it around the NFIP, but the NFIP has a lot of debt, so don’t you think that would be a problem here?” 8 From Your Side asked Mahsa Al-Saidi.
“I don’t think so,” Roach said. “This plan I’m talking about will be tied to that kind of financial solvency for the state of Florida, which is a very good thing.”
“We have periods of time, sometimes a decade, without a major storm, and during that time this fund will continue to grow and invest and make more money.”
The big unknown: Who will do a better job of collecting premiums and staying solvent when it comes time to pay claims?
Roach claims that all insurance companies do is get rich and then bail.
Roach says his bill isn’t perfect but it’s time to explore that idea.
So far, he has been unable to find a senator to sponsor a version of this bill in that chamber.