Posted On: October 17, 2007, 10:57 am CDT

Posted By: caffiend

Karen, yes I do work in the insurance industry. Specifically as an Independent Insurance Agent, meaning I am able to shop around some and not tied to one company. Please note that I'm not disagreeing the rates are high but from the way you had phrased your prior comments you seemed to have indicated that you lived in the keys.
However, with your suggestion that you boot all the insurance companies out of the state of Florida; please do review what Alex Sink (your state's CFO) has said about what she thinks the legisature has done. I have seen that CFO Sink is taking steps to work with the industry to try and balance things out. As of right now your state is gambling on not getting hit by a storm at this time, and if it does get hit by a moderate to severe storm, all P&C lines will be hit with assessment for several years to cover claims.

And those billions of dollars profits you keep harping on are from all lines of business (auto, commercial GL, WC, Life & Health, etc), not just Home-owners. If you isolate the premium collected and the losses paid for homeowners you'll see that the insurance industry has actually been in the red for the south east region of the US. Most companies write multiple lines of business so they are not putting all their eggs in one basket.

However, if you insist on self-insuring, please put it to a vote of the people. My father is a resident of Florida and I'd prefer that he has access to a company with the funds to pay out any potential claims.