You Can't Make Up These Quotes!

From the Insurance Journal today is a summary of a governor candidate debate sponsored by the Florida Association of Realtors.

Here are some of the interesting quotes:

Attorney General Crist [(R)]said there isn't any question that Citizens Property Insurance needs to be overhauled. "It is perfectly clear to me, as it is to most Floridians that property insurance rates are too high," he said, emphasizing more competition, not less.

[Unless, he is misquoted he doesn’t seem to understand how rates are made.  They are risked based and the state regulates the living daylights out of them now-so how can they be too high? ]

Crist said he would promote private enterprise and encourage new carriers to come to Florida.

[One could do this by reducing the price regulation in the market otherwise why would anyone want to come to this environment?  He doesn’t seem to understand why companies are leaving.]

"I think it is very important that we reach out to these insurance companies and say, 'Look, you have earned an awful lot of money on the backs of these Floridians and that's got to stop. You have to compete better, compete farther, offer rates that are reasonable and you better start paying these people.'

[I think the insurers should reach out to the Attorney General and say, we’ve lost more money than we’ve made going back 30 or 40 years.  The issue about paying claims is gratuitous].

These are from Florida’s CFO Tom Gallagher [D] (who is “in charge” of the Department of Insurance and who is on the Board of the Citizens Property Insurance Company)

"Does Citizens have problems?" he asked. "Sure it has problems. When you have a company that was built up instantly to 800,000 policy holders and you have a storm, that's a problem."

Gallagher said he has been working to solve those problems and is ready to suggest more comprehensive changes to the Legislature that are going to have to happen to make a difference.

"Without Citizens, 25 percent of the homeowners in this state would not have insurance, would not have a mortgage and would not be able to sell their homes or find loans," Gallagher said. "Citizens was supposed to be a small company, just to take care of those properties that no one else would write. Who would have ever thought that would become 25 percent of the housing market in Florida?"

[I’ll tell ya who would have thought this—anyone who understands that the quickest way to increase a residual markets size is to make sure that prices in the traditional market are regulated strongly—thus making traditional insurers become extra picky about the risks they choose to cover.]

State Senator Rod Smith [D] from Alachua …

Sen. Smith said he would like to attract out-of-state insurance companies to "suffer those kinds of losses, but it's not going to happen without taking interim steps."

[First, get a new marketing campaign.  An invitation to come and “suffer those kinds of losses” will be met with the soothing sounds of gentle cricket chirps.]

This set of quotes shows that the elected officials don’t have a clue about Florida’s home owner's insurance market—except that they would love it if the Feds took over the problem.