Oct. 11--The pitches from private insurance companies will keep on coming right through year's end for customers of state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp. Make it another 142,500 approved for December and 1.3 million for the year, regulators said Thursday.
That doesn't mean private insurers will actually make that many offers through state-approved letters, or that Citizens customers will accept. So far in 2015, 141,647 policies have switched as fewer than half of the offers have been accepted, down from 70 percent in 2014.
Customers are getting choosier even as Citizens has shrunk to about 585,000 customers from a high near 1.5 million a few years ago. It's still the biggest property insurer in the state and in Palm Beach County.
If consumers do nothing when they get the letters, they are automatically switched -- but customers have a right to stay if they want. Find out the annual premium (the part you pay) if that is not clearly stated in the letter, and make an informed choice.
According to numbers provided by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, approved for transfer offers in December:
--Anchor Property & Casualty Insurance Co. -- up to 20,000 policies
--Heritage Property & Casualty Insurance Co. -- up to 55,000
--Olympus Insurance Co. -- up to 10,000
--United Property & Casualty Insurance Co. -- up to 55,000
Earlier this month, Rep. Jose Javier Rodriguez of Miami and Rep. Dwight Dudley of St. Petersburg filed a Citizens proposal (HB 289) on Friday that is a near word-for-word match with the vetoed measure. The bill, intended to give policyholders more options as the state seeks to move homeowners out of Citizens Property Insurance Corp., is filed for the 2016 legislative session, which starts in January.
Asked about the bill, Scott spokeswoman Jeri Bustamante responded Monday that "Gov. Scott will review any legislation that makes it to his desk."
In vetoing the proposal this spring, Scott said it "undermines progress" in shifting policies into the private insurance market and "perpetuates reliance on Citizens."
Citizens has reduced its number of policies from a high of 1.5 million in 2012, when Scott pushed to scale back the agency by moving more homeowners into private coverage, to now around 586,000. The effort has included using what is known as a "takeout" process, which allows private firms to offer to take the least-risky policies from Citizens. Also, the effort includes using an electronic clearinghouse to shop policies to private firms.
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