Florida House Bill 13 is on the table, and it could dramatically change home insurance policies in the Sunshine State.
As reported by Matt Sczesny of WPTV in West Palm Beach, the bill would require Citizens Property Insurance Corp. — a nonprofit insurer created in 2002 to provide insurance to property owners who cannot find coverage in the private market — to provide windstorm coverage to homeowners.
Sponsored by Rep. Hillary Cassel, HB13 would make Citizens Insurance available to all property owners in Florida for windstorm damage.
While the bill's intent is to provide insurance relief to as many property owners as possible, there is worry about the cost to the state along with the effect on premiums. All this and more could be addressed when lawmakers return to the Capitol in March.
Rep. Spencer Roach brought up this proposal, modeled after California's insurance program for natural disaster relief, in February. "It provided insurance for all claims and only claims related to these natural disasters and left the private market to pick up the rest. The result: Rates dropped like a stone," Roach explained.
California may or may not be a good model, based on the insurance fallout from the Los Angeles wildfires, but it's clear that homeowners in areas prone to natural disasters are in desperate need of dependable protection.
"We would have about $3.2 trillion in insured value," Citizens CEO Tim Cerio told Sczesny during a "Coverage Collapse" special in June. "... The price tag is untenable."
This bill could be a game-changer for how residents protect their homes from hurricanes. According to News4Jax, the 2024 hurricane season caused $500 billion in damages across the United States. Florida suffered several billion-dollar weather events, per the National Centers for Environmental Information, including seven severe storms and four tropical hurricanes, three of which made landfall.
Warmer ocean temperatures and rising sea levels are making these storms stronger than ever. Per NCEI, 2024 was the warmest year on record, and human activity is at the root of it — more than 75% of the planet's pollution comes from the burning of dirty energy sources such as gas, oil, and coal.
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Move somewhere else 🌎 Reducing your carbon footprint will contribute to cooling down the planet and decreasing the intensity of storms wreaking havoc on people's lives, their homes, and our Earth. While walking or biking instead of driving and installing solar panels might not seem like a big deal, if we all do our part, it could make a world of difference. A collective effort got us here, and a collective effort can get us out.
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