TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The first week of Florida’s legislative session is coming to a close, and lawmakers have already introduced more than 30 bills related to insurance.
The proposals could have a significant impact on homeowners’ insurance premiums, but experts say patience is needed as recent reforms continue to take effect.
Former Florida Deputy Insurance Commissioner Lisa Miller believes the key to lowering premiums is fostering competition in the private insurance market.
“We want to encourage as a state a vibrant, competitive, robust private market, which will bring prices down,” Miller said. “Competition does that.”
Miller emphasized that stability is essential to maintaining a competitive market.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis echoed that sentiment in his State of the State address on Tuesday, noting that Florida’s insurance market is trending in the right direction.
“And our homeowners’ insurance market is seeing stability,” DeSantis said. “Eleven new companies have entered the market over the past year. One-hundred, thirty-thousand new private policies were put into effect in 2024.”
DeSantis credited legislative actions in 2022 and 2023 for helping stabilize the market. However, he warned against any new bills that could lead to increased litigation.
“What I’m not going to support is opening the floodgates for incentivizing more litigation that will destabilize things,” DeSantis said. “I think a lot of companies will leave.”
That means any legislation that could encourage lawsuits against insurers is likely to face a veto.
When asked about the likelihood of any of the proposed bills passing, Miller was skeptical.
“It’s going to be very difficult,” she said. “You know, (in) past sessions, bills like this are debated months before the session starts in committee meetings. And so, the timeline is not so compressed. So, you know, I think some of these bills will just die on the vine. and others may make it, but it is just too soon to tell right now.”
Florida Insurance Commissioner Mike Yaworsky has urged lawmakers to hold off on passing new reforms and allow previous reforms to continue to work.
“Everything is moving in the right direction,” Yaworsky said. “It takes time for consumers to feel that.”
Yaworsky pointed to inflation as a major reason why homeowners have yet to see significant premium reductions.
“Your insurance premium is not immune to inflation,” he said. “When you pay your premium, what you’re paying for is the amount of money it would cost to rebuild your home or replace your home. And as those costs have increased dramatically over the past four years, that’s a cost we’re fighting when it comes to the actual rate that you’re paying.”
Miller urged homeowners to be patient, saying that recent legislative efforts are beginning to work.
“It is my hope that the progress we’ve made in the past two to three years, with the help of the legislature and the governor, will continue to move forward,” she said. “The reforms that we’ve passed are working, and we’ve just got to be patient. And I think things will come together to get us to a better place.”
For a detailed breakdown of the insurance bills introduced this session, Miller has provided a summary in her latest newsletter.
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