Capitol to Courthouse Headliners: Thursday, Jan. 10

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State Senate wants answers on insurance costs

Frustrated that home insurance premiums aren’t dropping the way politicians promised, the state Senate plans to haul in industry executives to explain why — under oath.

 

Florida Senate to grill insurance executives

State lawmakers said today they will hold hearings next month to grill insurance company executives about why property insurance premiums have not decreased as promised last year.

 

Rubio wants ‘agency eliminations’; state Sen. Lawson calls idea ‘insane’

House Speaker Marco Rubio said Wednesday he will push for “agency eliminations” in the 2008 legislative session.

 

Anti-tax reform group launches campaign

Houses will burn longer before firefighters arrive, sheriff’s deputies will take longer to scare off prowlers, school kids will face more dangerous crosswalks and property insurance rates will rise.

 

Senate says insurance regulations working

The huge insurance premium increases paid by consumers to protect homes and businesses in the aftermath of the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons have been largely contained as a result of a new law passed in a special session last year, a state regulator told lawmakers Tuesday.

 

Nineteen Floridians Surrender On Charges In Ongoing Investigation Into Fraudulent Driver Licenses
 
Twenty-six arrested so far, hundreds more suspected to be involved
 
Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink announced the arrests this week of 19 additional Floridians accused of posing a risk to Florida’s and the nation’s security by fraudulently obtaining Florida commercial driver licenses (CDLs).  

 

Three-fifths of insurers rates still pending

Most Florida homeowners are not seeing the insurance premiums relief that was promised, despite regulators’ reassurances that there have been no increases approved.

 

Many insurance rates break reform law

Nearly a year after the Florida Legislature passed a major insurance reform bill, only 32 companies have lowered their premium rates as required by the law.

 

Lower insurance rates elusive

Florida homeowners really will see their property insurance rates come down as a result of laws passed last January, a key state regulator assured the Senate Committee on Banking and Insurance in Tallahassee on Tuesday.

 

Insurance rates haven’t caught up with reform

Only 32 homeowner’s insurance companies have lowered their premiums to the standard imposed by the Florida Legislature last spring.

 

Milligan: Maximum withdrawal from local government pool to rise

Local governments should soon have access to much more of their money that has been tied up in a state-run investment pool that is restricted because of a multibillion-dollar run, an official said Wednesday.

 

U.S. Reinsurance Renewal Rates Down 10%: Guy Carpenter

Reinsurance prices on average worldwide are down approximately 9 percent, driven by excess supply and fueled by strong profits and low losses, a brokerage firm said today.

 

Insurers paying to rebuild greener homes

Sean Walsh, left, walks with his mother Patricia Walsh, right, across the lot where his mother’s home once stood in the Rancho Bernardo neighborhood of San Diego Friday, Dec. 28, 2007.

 

Insurance industry projects $3.4 billion 2007 profit in Fla.

Three months after Florida’s property insurers were
required by law to file their final rate cuts, only a third have fully
done so.

 

Jindal names health secretary

He says DHH has ‘team of superstars’

A one-time health care adviser to Florida Gov. Jeb Bush will take over the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, Gov.-elect Bobby Jindal said Tuesday as he rounded out his Cabinet in advance of Monday’s inauguration.

 

Sen. Nelson meets with Vero Beach residents to discuss concerns
 
Education, insurance, the Iraq war, the future of the space program and how to pay for it all were among questions residents got in during Sen. Bill Nelson’s town hall meeting Wednesday morning.

 

Letter to the Editor:  Unattractive to insurers

On Jan. 2 the Sentinel published an editorial scolding property-insurance companies for not lowering rates ‘even though their profits have soared,’ and suggested a portion of that windfall was attributable to ‘billions of dollars worth of re-insurance’ that the state has made available to insurers at (ostensibly) lower cost.

 

Key senator from Eustis now favors red-light cameras

A leading Florida senator who last year blocked legislation allowing the use of cameras to catch motorists who run red lights said Tuesday that he thinks the measure now should become law.

 

St. Lucie charging about $10,000 for flights to trauma centers

If you need to be flown by helicopter out of St. Lucie County to a trauma center, you’ll be paying about $10,000 after the St. Lucie County Fire District and Omniflight Helicopters started a partnership at the beginning of the new year.

 

Prisons chief to resign this month

James McDonough, the retired Army colonel whose by-the-book management style returned stability to a Florida prison system wracked by scandal, has told Gov. Charlie Crist he plans to resign before the end of the month.

 

Florida undecided as states sue over costly drug program

They’re powerful psychotic drugs, used to treat conditions like schizophrenia. No one knows what their effects are on children, especially infants, yet within seven years the number of children prescribed the drugs in Florida’s health insurance program for the poor has nearly doubled.

 

Katrina’s victims ask for huge checks

Hurricane Katrina’s victims have put a price tag on their suffering and it is staggering – including one plaintiff seeking the unlikely sum of $3 quadrillion.

 

A Regulator Not Stymied by Red Tape

Shortly before Thanksgiving, Eric R. Dinallo, the insurance regulator for New York State, did something unusual.

 

Op-Ed:  Edwards’ Evil Insurance Scam

Put aside the unseemly nature of John Edwards using a young woman’s death and her family’s grief to boost his political campaign – we’ve come to expect politicians to engage in this sort of exploitation of personal tragedy.

 

Insurer, Backed by Berkshire, Offers Asbestos Cover

New Bermuda-based insurer St. George Re said on Wednesday it would begin operations as the first company dedicated solely to offering U.S. companies protection against asbestos claims.

 

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