Florida Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky said he believes the state’s insurance industry has stabilized, adding consumers “are finding relief” and have more options “than we’ve had in decades.”
“If you were in this meeting three years ago, it was like the equivalent of a funeral. It was very depressing; it was dark. Everyone thought the end was coming,” he said Friday during the Florida Chamber of Commerce’s annual insurance summit. “And two years later, we are in a fantastic place, seeing nothing but success on the horizon.”
In an interview this week with Florida Politics, Yaworsky said consumers went from “massive rate hikes year-over-year to very modest rate hikes.”
In some cases, people are seeking decreases, he added.
“Over 100 carriers have filed for a 0% increase or decrease,” he said.
But it’s clear Floridians are still worried about rising property insurance costs.
“The Invading Sea’s Florida Climate Survey also found that most Floridians – 54% – are worried about being able to afford and maintain homeowners insurance due to climate change,” Florida Atlantic University said in a press release this Spring. “According to a 2023 report by LexisNexis Risk Solutions, the average premiums for Florida homeowners rose nearly 60% between 2015 and 2023, the largest increase in any state.”
Yaworsky also touted reforms that would lower auto insurance costs.
“We’ve seen a $1 billion return to policyholders because despite the best actuarially sound estimates of just how good the reforms would be and how much of an impact that would have on rate making … It has exceeded all expectations,” he said.
In October, the state announced that the average Progressive auto insurance policyholder will receive a $300 rebate.
“A billion-dollar return from Progressive is just one of the first of what will likely be others,” Yaworsky told Florida Politics. “Those consumers will be getting additional money back in addition to rate reduction to make sure that insurers aren’t overcharging people because of the reforms.”
–Gabrielle Russon, Florida Politics
JimboXYZ says
Makes one wonder how many properties aren’t insured or if they are, higher premiums apply ? I think this is like declaring a recession & then coming out of that recession by the typical metric of a government for a new “normal” ? In light of inflation, declaring the insurance industry healthy & stable again ? A lot of those insurers that left FL are gone, never came back, never coming back. And the options are no better than they ever were, perhaps & in all probability, worse ? So how does an insurance industry that disappeared, recover to healthy and the same insurance that there was 2 years ago isn’t what it was -6 years ago declare itself stable somehow ? Is it because the last hurricane season had zero catastrophic storms to hit FL ? Is it because the last wild fire as in California, earlier this year & was a Biden-Harris last month at that ? FL had some wild fires earlier this year, contained to non-residential and nowhere near what Hawaii & California had for property damages/losses. Not trying to crap on the FL Insurance Commissioner’s declaration, but rather just keeping it real about what the scorecard for 2025 really was for insurance claim & damage. FPL didn’t have to scramble their disaster recovery teams in 2025, hurricane(s) or fire(s). This is like saying a team didn’t lose the Bowl game, and everyone knows the team didn’t play in a bowl game even. FSU & UF won’t lose a bowl game in 2025, because they won’t play in one. FL Property Insurance Industry, we had no catastrophic losses in 2025, because there were none, were zero catastrophes.