RE: SB 122 – Agreements Between Service Providers and Consumers
Chairman
Simmons and members of the committee,
My
name is Christian Cámara. I am a co-founder and senior fellow of the R Street
Institute, a Washington-based, free-market public policy research organization
or think tank.
We
have researched and written extensively on Florida’s property insurance market
over the years and have crafted proposals that have been incorporated into
reforms that successfully helped stabilize the state’s once-shaky insurance
market.
Despite
positive legislative reforms, a decadelong reprieve from hurricanes and record-low
reinsurance rates, Florida’s property insurance rates have continued to rise,
due in large part to out-of-control litigation and AOB abuse.
In
our most recent insurance study, published in conjunction with the James
Madison Institute, we outlined a series of reforms that we feel would largely
address the AOB crisis and consequent insurance rate increases that Florida,
and only Florida, is experiencing.
We
are happy to see that Senate Bill 122 incorporates our recommendations that
consumers be kept in the loop during the claim-resolution process and protected
with an opt-out period and requirement that they approve an itemized, written
estimate, which is then sent to the insurer within a reasonable time. However,
we do feel that more can and should be done to address attorney fees, which
have served as a perverse incentive to bring costly litigation.
In conclusion, we believe this modest bill is a step in the right
direction, and we urge its passage.
