News 4039 Florida Home Insurance Hearings Tallahassee

Florida insurance regulators have decided that all future public hearings on home insurance or any other insurance issue will be held in Tallahassee. They will not travel to central locations because they say it is cost prohibitive since very few consumers attended the public hearings. Only five people showed up to a hearing concerning State Farm's last request for a rate hike. However, these hearings are poorly publicized and held at times when many consumers can not attend. A hearing in the middle of a work day that nobody knows about is bound to have poor attendance and this offers fodder for insurers who say that consumers must just be happy they still have any home insurance at all.

State Senator Mike Fasano begs to differ. The public hearing he organized drew so many attendees that the fire department had to be called in to control the crowd. He attributes the difference to better communication. The Office of Insurance Regulation publicizes its hearings in the Florida Administrative Weekly, a dense tome of state agency notices rarely read by the public, they also send out press releases assuming the media will alert the public to the hearings. This might work... on a slow news day. Fasano and other consumer advocates say they spend little to nothing on advertising. A simple letter to consumer organizations seems to do the trick just fine. At any rate, increasing or not, all future hearings will be held in Tallahassee.

Read more: Insurance Hearings Staying in Tallahassee (First Coast News) TALLAHASSEE, FL -- Florida insurance regulators will no longer hold hearings around the state to listen to what consumers have to say about rate hikes.