Florida Insurance in Flux: Poll Says Rate By Risk

A recent poll conducted by Neil Newhouse of Public Opinion Strategies on behalf of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America reports that more than 40% of Florida residents categorized as “likely voters” think the property insurance market in their state is in crisis.

PCI said that the poll, results of which were released last week, included 800 prospective voters, and demonstrated the need for dialogue between public policy makers, consumers, and insurance companies in order to create a solution to the problem of property insurance in Florida. Not all the respondents actually own property, however.

Newhouse’s poll results show that 75% of the respondents felt that recent legislation did not solve the state’s insurance issues, and they want a long-term solution, not any kind of quick-fix. In response, PCI CEO and President, David A. Sampson, hosted a media call on Wednesday, and said that his group is committed to working with all the relevant parties. He also said that the private insurance industry needed to be robust. He also pointed to risk-based pricing as a fundamental factor in the insurance market, and the poll showed that 59% of those questioned agreed.

The POS poll reiterated this point. Even those Floridians who live in high risk coastal areas of the state thought that a risk-based rate scale was equitable, and agreed that those who live with greater likelihood of hurricane damage should pay more for their insurance than those who do not.

Florida’s insurance market has been in a state of flux all year, and it isn’t limited to property insurance alone. Earlier this year, Allstate was barred from writing new policies in the state, and this week State Farm made the decision not to write any more Florida property insurance policies, because they don’t like the state mandated rate changes.

Florida has roughly $2 trillion of coastal property that is routinely exposed to natural disasters.