Are Legislators Drafting Laws… or Insurance Industry?

“I love insurance companies and want them to make even more profit than they already do. That’s why I am a Florida Legislator!”

This should be the button being worn by most legislators in Florida who permitted an unsubstantiated and unfounded bill to be passed during this most recent business oriented session of the legislature. That bill now sits on the desk of Governor Rick Scott.

The bill provides for a number of things – all of them, every one of them, bad for consumers, but good for insurance companies.

Insurance companies say the legislation will help cut down on fraud. This is fraud that was not documented or proved to even be happening beyond the statements of insurance company advocates like Sam Miller, with the Florida Insurance Council:

“We are paying out hundreds of millions of dollars in fraudulent sinkhole claims and hurricane claims that are filed five years after a hurricane and an awful lot of those are fraudulent.”

That is all that has been seen or heard from insurance company “experts”: shucks, an awful lot of these suckers are fraudulent (we believe or, at least for purposes of getting this bill passed, that is our story and we are sticking to it).

The legislation is like a wish list for the insurance industry:

• Elimination of sink hole coverage
• No full payment of claims until verification of repairs (even if contractors will not finish without the assurance of prompt payments that insurers are not know for)
• A 15% rate hike without state approval

What it seems legislature leaders did is to sit down with property insurers and ask, “so what do you guys want?”

Contact Governor Rick Scott to express your feelings about unregulated insurance company sponsored bills:

Office of Governor Rick Scott

State of Florida

The Capitol

400 S. Monroe St.

Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001

Email: click here to send email

(850) 488-7146

(850) 487-0801 (fax)