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Farmers Insurance is leaving Florida in latest blow to homeowners (www.tampabay.com)
submitted 1 year ago by alyaza@beehaw.org to c/usnews@beehaw.org
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[-] Powderhorn@beehaw.org 31 points 1 year ago

I have a feeling the invisible hand is going to force an about face for the GOP on climate sooner than they'd like. Yes, for now they can rail against woke companies for making decisions that improve shareholder returns, but it's cartoonish already what with the weather of late — and I'm sure what's to come will involve blaming residents for leaving when there are no insurance companies left willing to touch Florida (point on the map where the bad man ...).

Problem is, residents have different thresholds than businesses, and once commercial insurance starts to decline in availability, no amount of rhetoric is going to fix the grocery stores closing down because they can't get insurance.

Insurance is ultimately a game of musical chairs. For now, there are so many companies and policy types that it's the boring part at the beginning where everyone mocks the loser but there really aren't any stakes. The mockery phase will end as companies increasingly become the last holdouts and shareholders start asking why everyone else left but we're forecasting blue skies.

[-] alyaza@beehaw.org 9 points 1 year ago

Insurance is ultimately a game of musical chairs. For now, there are so many companies and policy types that it’s the boring part at the beginning where everyone mocks the loser but there really aren’t any stakes. The mockery phase will end as companies increasingly become the last holdouts and shareholders start asking why everyone else left but we’re forecasting blue skies.

oh yeah--and the thing is for residents it's already still really bad. there are people on insurance company number 4 in 4 years (or who have two insurance companies because one has to cover one thing and the other covers everything else), and the state is actively trying to disincentivize joining the lender of last resort because they can't take on that many policies and it'll kill the remaining insurers. a bad hurricane this year might genuinely be the thing which kicks off the permanent death spiral here--the market needs years of blue skies to "stabilize".

[-] Powderhorn@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Oh, absolutely. I think of it as more of a domino effect than butterfly. What we don't know is how many dominoes the next one to fall will touch. The actuaries at Farmers determined that N events of X size in Y timeframe make these policies undesirable, but it tells us nothing about what N+1 means to other divisions of Farmers, let alone what happens at other companies with their own Xs and Ys.

[-] lagomorphlecture@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago

Well, each major insurer that leaves makes the state more undesirable for everyone that's left. Each one of these insurers had their share of the "bad" business and now the ones who are left have to sift through the applicants to try to figure out who is safe to insure and who is going to cost them their ability to continue doing business. So with every insurer that leaves, those undesirable risks who pushed them out end up more and more concentrated with the other carriers. I would expect to see more and more of this.

[-] Rekhyt@beehaw.org 12 points 1 year ago

Hearing rumors @WeAreFarmers might pull out of Florida. If that’s true my office is going to explore every avenue possible for holding them accountable. Don’t get to leave after taking policyholder money. Can’t write auto if you’re not doing homeowners either. Zero communication!

"Don't get to leave after taking policyholder money"

What do you think insurance is? You're not "purchasing" anything, you're buying an ability to recover losses. It's not like when I cancel my policy I get to walk away with a pile of boards from Home Depot on my insurance company's dime because I haven't had major damage to my house.

It's like if Netflix decided to cancel all subscribers in FL and the response was "I gave you all that money and I don't get to keep watching your movies forever???"

[-] lagomorphlecture@beehaw.org 8 points 1 year ago

Typically when an insurer exits a state they either nonrenew the policies, meaning that you have coverage until the end of the policy period, or they stop writing new business but keep their renewals. Neither one of those constitutes taking the money and running. It's so weird that people would see it that way.

[-] PaddleMaster@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago

There are some states ( I don’t live in FL, but I doubt they offer this type of insurance) that offer Perpetual Insurance. Which is where you pay upfront for coverage, and when you no longer need coverage you’re money is returned.

It costs a lot upfront, but you save a lot in the long run. And any state that offers this type of insurance, I recommend anyone with the means to jump on it.

You’re not wrong, but there are other options.

[-] Rekhyt@beehaw.org 2 points 1 year ago

That's fascinating and I have not heard of this type of system before. Presumably in a system like that, they would still be returning the person's money when they left, though...

[-] thatonedude1210@beehaw.org 11 points 1 year ago

And they’re trying to say it’s the greatest state to live in. What a joke.

[-] TheFriendlyArtificer@beehaw.org 10 points 1 year ago

Greatest state if you're a white cis male bath salts enthusiast.

For the rest of us, it's just another place to avoid like it's riddled with the plague. Which was also one their aims.

[-] thatonedude1210@beehaw.org 5 points 1 year ago

Exactly. The GOP is destroying that state and they do not give two shits about the repercussions.

[-] lagomorphlecture@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago

Anybody voting for GOP should really consider whether they want to live in FL because if they have their way the entire country will be exactly like FL. "Oh but MY representatives will only do the things that are good." No, they won't. That isn't how they operate.

[-] brutalbeard@geddit.social 6 points 1 year ago

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahhshahagahahaha

[-] dr_catman@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago

This reminds me of that tweet that’s something like:

me fucking around: oh fuck yeah this is awesome

me finding out: no, wtf? the world’s not fair. this shit sucks

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this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2023
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