Alex Sink Sides With House On Insurance

Alex Sink backs the Florida House proposal on homeowner insurance.

"The question becomes: How much government intervention and ... where is that tipping point, that the price we may have to pay in the future is so outrageous that we can't take it?"

Sink is also concerned about the financial risk to the state.

"What we're betting on is we can give people rate relief now and we won't have bad storms immediately," Sink said.

The Senate plan calls for the state being responsible for $71 billion after insurers' claims reach $22 billion. I've wondered about where this money is going to come from. There are two conflicting issues at play for me. The fiscal conservative in me is raising red flags over the financial sum. The consumer advocate side is tired of people getting screwed by insurance companies.

I'm not arguing for higher insurance rates. The freeze on Citizens Property Insurance Corp is a good idea. Rates were suppose to go up 55 percent this year. That is ridiculous.

Insurance reform is needed in Florida. My question is will the state be able to pay for it if a hurricane(s) hits?

In other news: sometimes you can learn everything you need to know from the first paragraph of an article.

The major stumbling block in the state's special session on insurance Thursday appeared to come down to a choice between higher profits for private insurers vs. lower rates for customers of state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp.

I actually like the idea of having Citizens write all-perils policies. Competition tends to make better prices for consumers. Besides, my understanding is many of these policies will be in communities that other insurance companies don't want to touch. Charlie Crist just has to figure out how he will pay for all this without raising taxes.