Florida's Agricultural Heart - Okeechobee And Surrounding Counties - Eye Of The Insurance Cancellation Storm

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Inside Climate News’ investigation focused on four counties around Lake Okeechobee, where nonrenewal rates were some of the highest in the state: Glades, Hendry, Highlands and Okeechobee. Other counties affected by high nonrenewal rates included Franklin and Gulf, located in the Panhandle where 2018’s Hurricane Michael was the first category 5 hurricane to strike the continental U.S. since Andrew in 1992. Dixie and Levy, coastal counties situated in northwest Florida, weathered three hurricanes in 13 months: Idalia in 2023 and Debby and Helene in 2024.

In Okeechobee, Inside Climate News found that insurance is a major concern. Not only are there few policies to choose from, but the policies that are available often are unaffordable. The situation represents a significant economic issue, as most lenders require mortgage-holders to carry insurance. Residents without mortgages increasingly are going without insurance altogether. “Insurance is a major topic,” said Monica Clark, who got so frustrated after receiving multiple cancellation letters from both private and Florida’s state-run insurer that she campaigned for the city commission and now is vice mayor.

Okeechobee, with a population of about 5,500, spans four square miles. Many residents commute to the coasts but live here, where life is more affordable and the pace more leisurely. The median household income in Okeechobee County is $52,288. In 2023 the nonrenewal rate was 8.3 percent, up 4,236 percent since 2018. In 2022, nearly a quarter the county’s policy holders received nonrenewal notices from their insurance companies, according to the Budget Committee data.

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Legislative reforms in recent years aimed at addressing a tide of litigation against insurers have faced criticism from those who believe the reforms benefited the insurers more than homeowners. An estimated 47 percent of claims that closed in 2024 without payment resulted in a lawsuit, a 17 percent increase since 2022, before the reforms were implemented, according to an analysis released this month by Weiss Ratings, an independent insurance ratings company. The analysis was based on data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. The data show the reforms did not work, said Martin Weiss, founder of Weiss Ratings. Instead the reforms emboldened insurance companies to deny more claims, generating more lawsuits, he said. He dismissed assertions that the lawsuits were frivolous. “Why in the world would the people in Florida be 12 times more prone to filing frivolous lawsuits than the people in Georgia or New York or any of the other states?” he asked. “We’re not from Mars. We’re not monsters from Mars living in Florida. We’re just normal people trying to get money for our claims.”

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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/14092025/florida-insurance-crisis-hits-hardest-in-disadvantaged-counties/