By Randy Ray, Chairman of Senior Consumers of America
We are 1 month into the 2026 hurricane season, and knock on wood, no hurricanes for the great state of Florida. Obviously, we have about 5 months to go. But in the meantime, we have more and more good news for the insurance market. Rates are flattening, and in my ways, going down incrementally. This is a significant turnaround from where we were just a year or so ago.
News outlets just reported last week that 40 insurance companies had lowered rates or offered rebates. It all points to one thing. The litigation reforms of 2023 are working.
Consider the evidence. Over the last two years, Florida’s insurance marketplace has improved dramatically. The number of new insurers coming into the Florida market has increased 4 fold. Many thousands of automobile insurance customers have actually received rebates. Citizens Property Insurance, the state’s insurer of last resort, has fallen to its lowest number of policies in over 25 years.
Florida is the only state in the country where rates of both auto and property insurance have either flattened or decreased.
Prior to 2023, Florida’s extremely volatile litigiousness landed our state on the list of judicial hellholes. Our system of one-way legal fees meant that a consumer could hire an attorney and sue an insurance company, and if the insurance company settled for any amount, the insurance company would then be 100% liable for the plaintiff’s legal fees. You can understand why now so many attorneys advertised on billboards, tv, social media, sides of taxis and buses, etc. If there was a place to buy advertising, the attorneys were buying it. All they needed was a plaintiff, a little time, and a small settlement to trigger a massive amount of fees.
The governor and legislature reformed that system, and the frivolous lawsuits have largely stopped, bringing sanity to the system and rebates to consumers. Under the former system, frivolous lawsuits and the subsequent legal fee settlements were driving up the cost of insurance, for individuals and small businesses. The small businesses in turn would have to pass those costs along to consumers. What this essentially means is that for decades, you and I were paying higher prices on everything to finance the settlement machines known as billboard attorneys.
Affordability is the most important word in this political cycle. If for any reason, the legislature were to turn back the clock on the litigation reforms of 2023, we would see any gains in the insurance market and lower premiums reversed almost immediately. However, I’m going to hope and pray for legislators with the commonsense to stick with a good thing and keep their constituents happy. For too long, the insurance market has been decided by special interests and insiders. For once, consumers seem to be winning. We need to keep it that way.
