One investigative journalist, Brianna Sacks, of the Washington Post, has uncovered and uncovered extra corruption by Florida insurance coverage corporations than all of the state paid for insurance coverage investigators and regulators whose job it’s to guard Floridians from such conduct. The article, Insurers Slashed Hurricane Ian Payouts Far Below Damage Estimates, Documents and Insiders Reveal, might trigger many to say, “look at all the claims corruption by Florida insurance companies. This is outrageous!” The unhappy query raised by the article is:
Why are Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis and Republican politicians behind and supporting each regulation desired and written by these corrupt insurance coverage corporations ripping off Floridians?
The article particularly famous that Florida Republican politicians are doing nothing after getting the surprising details about insurance coverage corporations committing fraud towards their very own prospects:
Asking lawmakers to take motion
Over the previous yr, Florida Republicans known as two particular legislative classes centered on the state’s insurance coverage trade and handed extra legal guidelines that additional defend and insulate property insurance coverage carriers, largely on the expense of house owners. Two main trade wins embody funneling $1 billion in taxpayer cash right into a reinsurance fund and stopping carriers from having to pay policyholders’ attorneys’ charges once they sue.
At the December session, Lee, Mandell, Vinson and different adjusters joined residents in talking out towards the laws. Their testimony was lined by Insurance Journal.
After Mandell accused insurance coverage carriers of fraudulent conduct that’s ‘more widespread than any of us could have imagined,’ state Rep. Bob Rommel (R), the chair of the Commerce Committee, requested the group of adjusters to come back to his workplace later with that data ‘to make sure the attorney general and [Office of Insurance Regulation] takes care of that.’
They did. And in response to 4 folks current, Rommel requested to see proof and informed the group, ‘If this is really happening, this needs to be taken care of,’ Lee recalled. Vinson had introduced a flash drive with dozens of recordsdata to indicate, however the consultant mentioned it was not protected for a authorities laptop.
The subsequent day, Dec. 14, Mandell emailed Rommel’s workplace with the proof the lawmaker requested, together with a file of 4 paperwork displaying how his estimate of $40,468.54 of injury was revised to indicate $2,658. ‘You will note that they left my name on this bogus estimate,’ the adjuster wrote within the electronic mail, obtained by The Washington Post.
In an electronic mail, Rommel informed The Post that the adjusters got here to his workplace with ‘no evidence. Told them the door was open if they could produce the evidence.’ After a number of emails from The Post, Rommel’s workplace mentioned that it had forwarded the adjuster’s electronic mail to the state’s chief monetary officer, Jimmy Patronis, and that Patronis’s workplace will contact Mandell.
‘We have asked the CFO’s workplace to maintain us within the loop,’ a spokesperson for Rommel mentioned. The CFO’s workplace mentioned in a press release that it has acquired the data from Rommel, met with the property homeowners from the report and that ‘an investigation is currently open and ongoing.’
Of course, nothing was accomplished.
This isn’t a brand new downside that the Washington Post uncovered. I’ve famous many cases of those corrupt claims practices, reminiscent of in Why Are Property Insurance Claims Being Underpaid and Independent Catastrophe Adjusters Leaving the Field?, and Do Independent Property Claims Adjusters Need More Legal Protection From Unethical Managers. So, why isn’t one thing being accomplished to cease it?
Florida’s insurance coverage trade apparently controls Florida’s Republican management. Florida’s Governor, Ron DeSantis, dictates what the Republican management is to do. He has and is presently supporting insurance coverage corporations and new legal guidelines that take away protections for peculiar people who’re abused by the wrongful claims practices of their insurance coverage firm.
To me, it is a unhappy state of affairs. For readers not aware of my politics, I’m a registered Republican and was a member of the Republican Governor’s Association. Holding wrongdoers accountable for his or her illegal actions and abuse is a core conservative worth that appears to be forgotten relating to the acute quantities of lobbying cash which may be raised by the insurance coverage trade. Florida Republican management is misplaced and misguided on these points involving insurance coverage firm misconduct. Nothing is being accomplished to cease the abuse as a result of Florida’s Republican leaders are on the incorrect facet. They are supporting legal guidelines making it simpler and extra worthwhile for insurance coverage corporations to do that.
I might be on the Win The Storm convention this week. One of the panels I might be on options Republican Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody. I’m sure that the subject of prosecuting insurance coverage firm claims managers and firms for one of these conduct might be raised. Hope to see you there. We can be taught what her ideas are about this abuse and what she intends to do about it.
Thought For The Day
Journalism is the safety between folks and any kind of totalitarian rule. That’s why my hero, admittedly a flawed one, is a journalist.
—Andrew Vachss