After churning its harmful path via Florida, Hurricane Ian could do deadly harm to the state’s home-insurance market — posing a possible political headache to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Long earlier than the storm, Florida’s property insurance system was a large number. Hundreds of 1000’s of Florida owners misplaced their personal insurance insurance policies during the last two years, after a dozen corporations left the market within the face of billion-dollar annual losses, together with a number of that went below.
Now, the harm wrought by Ian could be the business’s breaking level within the state.
More than one million Florida owners have been pressured to show to Citizens Property Insurance, the state’s publicly funded “insurer of last resort” — that means that state taxpayers could be on the hook for billions of {dollars}’ value of hurricane harm. Early estimates say the storm precipitated at the very least $63 billion in harm to privately insured property alone, not together with flood harm lined by the National Flood Insurance Program, which gives most flood insurance policies.

Annual premiums already price Florida owners $4,200 on common, triple the nationwide common price.
The long-brewing disaster has turned home insurance right into a marketing campaign challenge for Democrat Charlie Crist, DeSantis’s challenger in November’s gubernatorial election, who on Monday known as the incumbent “the worst property insurance governor in Florida history, period.”
Here’s every thing to find out about Hurricane Ian:
Florida’s geography, which often places it within the path of extreme storms, contributes to its insurance woes. But its unusually excessive charges of litigation worsen the scenario, state officers say.
A lawyer-friendly atmosphere implies that Florida sees 79% of the nation’s owners’ insurance lawsuits, the Financial Times reported — however solely 9% of all claims.
“With Ian, especially if this storm leads to litigation, it makes me wonder if the market can sustain this,” stated Nancy Watkins of Milliman, a world actuarial consulting agency.
DeSantis, who convened a particular legislative session in May to deal with the insurance downside, acknowledged that the ensuing short-term repair — a $2 billion reinsurance backstop for Citizens Property Insurance — is way from sufficient.
“This is a problem that we’re going to continue to tackle,” DeSantis stated Monday, hours earlier than the hurricane hit. “Clearly, there’s different issues legislatively that I’d prefer to see executed.
“But if you’re asking would I rather not have had a storm hit us, then the answer is yes.”