Citizens Property Insurance

The session comes as Florida's property insurance market has dealt with billions of dollars in losses, rising prices for consumers and insurer insolvencies.

State lawmakers will meet to pass more legislation aimed at fixing the troubled property insurance market, which took another blow after Hurricane Ian destroyed thousands of homes.

As Florida lawmakers try to stabilize the troubled property-insurance system next month, they could face worsening problems with reinsurance, a critical part of the system. Overall reinsurance prices are expected to increase by more than 10 percent in 2023, due to disasters such as Hurricane Ian and “increasing frequency and severity of natural catastrophe claims.”

The increases, which apply to what are known as “personal lines” policies, were approved by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation in June.

The projection has been scaled back because Citizens has not seen as many claims as initially expected in areas outside of hard-hit Lee, Charlotte and Sarasota counties.

The difficult environment has put many insurers out of business and caused others to raise their prices or tighten their restrictions, making it harder for Floridians to obtain insurance.

Citizens president and CEO Barry Gilway said private property insurers are projected to have $1 billion in losses this year, as the property insurer has more than doubled its number of policies in two years.

It would lift a $700,000 cap on policies as homeowners struggle to find coverage.

The state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp. has surpassed 1 million policies for the first time since 2014. Citizens has been absorbing an influx of policies as private insurers drop customers and push for large rate increases.

Citizens Property Insurance Corp. would take on a reinsurance role to help make sure claims get paid if private insurers go insolvent.

It comes as private insurers have shed customers and sought rate increase due to financial troubles.

Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, compared conditions in the industry to having “Stage 4 cancer and failing” but that the proposals were like treating “Stage 1 cancer.”