WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Florida's sunshine and warm weather are the envy of the country for about nine months of the year.
But when hurricanes bear down and carve a path through the Sunshine State, insurance premiums historically have gone through the roof.
"It's really been bad for a very long time," state Rep. Rick Roth, R-West Palm Beach, said.
"It's probably the biggest issue that I hear from constituents," state Sen. Lori Berman, D-Boynton Beach, said. "Their insurance is going up to the point that it has become the issue why they can't afford to stay in their homes anymore."
Homeowners insurance in Florida is something lawmakers on both sides of the aisle agree is at a breaking point.
Much of the problem stems from deals done after Hurricane Andrew — which hit the state 31 years ago.
When insurance companies pulled out of Florida or shut down, a state back-insurer popped up. However, some believe those insurers took on too many policies.
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When smaller companies finally moved back in with them, lawmakers approved just one lone ratings giant — Demotech.
Ratings companies give insurers ratings that then give consumers confidence their insurer is fiscally sound and can pay their claim if disaster strikes.
Recently Florida lawmakers tried tackling the problem by backing Florida's reinsurers, which are essentially insurance companies for the insurance companies themselves.
Lawmakers allocated billions in bail-out money, but that didn't stop the mass exodus of insurers in recent years.
Some of the companies that pulled out cited hurricane threats while others blamed the legal climate and rampant lawsuits from Florida consumers.
"Five law firms in Florida are responsible for over 90% of the lawsuits," Roth said.
Lawmakers just approved a series of new rules clamping down on frivolous lawsuits.
Even so, 15 companies have stopped writing new business in Florida since January 2022. Three more have announced withdrawal in the last few months, driving prices even higher.
"The leadership in the Legislature has not fully addressed this issue," Berman said. "We have been discussing and discussing it for years, and yet here we are in a crisis.
"We didn't fix the problem. We dealt with the lawsuit problem," Roth said. "It's gonna take probably five years, in my opinion, for rates to really come down significantly."
"We need to start thinking outside the box and have a new way of looking at this because if we're gonna do the same old same old, we're gonna have the same old problems," Berman said.