The following Letter to the Editor was published in The Daily Sun on Jan 1, 2023.
If more people had read newspapers perhaps the recent Insurance Company Update Law signed into law last week wouldn’t have passed. It includes making homeowners responsible for attorney fees if they are forced to sue the insurance company because their company did not pay a lawful and justifiable claim. Until last week the law was if the insurance company did not comply with its legal obligation, they paid for the attorneys. Now it is the homeowner who must pay even if they win. So now it’s “you try to cheat me, I must pay!”
The law also provides $1 billion to help insurance companies reduce their reinsurance costs, in addition to $2 billion earlier this year. This is our taxpayer money that is helping the insurance companies profit without forcing companies to reform.
To add injury to insult, the law states that anyone who has the non-profit Citizens Insurance will have to change to private insurance even if the private rate is 19.9% more than the Citizens rate! This is a guaranteed profit increase for the insurance companies.
This is not an issue of one political party, it is an issue that that our representatives no longer represent us. It is not what they say, but what they do. In both parties we need primary challengers who will force representatives to represent taxpayers, not lobbyists.
Roger Klotz, Punta Gorda
