As the United States deals with a global financial crisis, Florida stands at the maw of a deep fiscal abyss of its own making. Despite a series of regulatory changes made during 2009 served to improve and stabilize Florida’s property insurance system, the environment in which Floridians buy insurance for their homes remains one of the nation’s most politicized and financially threatening. Political decisions made over the course of several decades have artificially lowered property insurance rates for homeowners in high-risk areas while simultaneously exposing the state’s taxpayers to massive liabilities if a single major hurricane were to hit one of the state’s heavily populated areas.
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