No special session on insurance

TALLAHASSEE — The elections are over, campaign signs have come down and so has urgency for insurance reform.

On Wednesday, unable to fully sell legislative leaders on the need for immediacy, Gov. Jeb Bush did not call a special session to deal with the crisis that in August he said was crippling Florida.

To seal it, Senate President Ken Pruitt on Wednesday canceled December committee meetings, citing instead his "anticipation of a special session in January."

Though the governor has the power to call a special session independently, or Senate and House presiding officers can do so jointly, it's rare for one to be called without consensus among the three.

Consumers will understand the wait, assured Senate Majority Leader Dan Webster, a Winter Garden Republican.

"As long as they know we are willing and committed," he said. "It's only three weeks, if you take where we were going to be and where we are headed now, if you consider the holidays..."

Not all who have railed against Florida's crushing insurance rates agree.

"No, this can't wait," said Sherri Hudson, a mortgage adviser and volunteer subcommittee chair of a Brevard County group that calls itself Insurance Reform Now! "We needed it yesterday."

Made up largely of people in the real estate industry, Insurance Reform Now! members have marched in the street to call attention to the damage insurance rates are doing to consumers and the local economy. They want immediate caps on policy cancellations and a moratorium on rate increases, along with laws to prevent insurers from cherry-picking their business in Florida or siphoning profits off to national parents.

"A customer called me today, a young couple ... they just got their bill. It tripled, to $2,500. I didn't even know what to tell them to do, and they're looking at me for help," Hudson said.

"This is an emergency. I really don't feel like our government leaders feel like it is an emergency."

Caps and moratoriums are not on the list of proposals offered by Bush's insurance reform committee or touted by legislative leaders.

The ideas they are considering — such as expanding consumer-backed loans and state-funded catastrophe reinsurance — can wait until January, when the industry typically negotiates finances for the next hurricane season.

A January session is bound to include ideas not on the Bush to-do list — Gov.-elect Charlie Crist and state Chief Financial Officer-elect Alex Sink both campaigned on proposals the governor's insurance reform committee dismissed.

"To quantify the difference between a December special session and a January session would be difficult," said Rep. Don Brown, a DeFuniak insurance agent appointed Wednesday to lead the House committees that includes insurance.

Even Sen. Mike Fasano, already writing legislation to roll back dramatic rate increases pending at Citizens Property Insurance, is prepared to wait.

"Sen. Pruitt has already taken the lead and is way ahead of the game," said Fasano, citing Pruitt's pick a month ago of Sen. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge, as his insurance "point man."

Personally in favor of a December session, Posey for weeks had worked agreements between key House and Senate members. By Tuesday, he had consensus on half a dozen major law changes, including some that would immediately lower rates.

"I'd love it if we could have a day of session and just take some issues that (Senate Minority Leader) Steve Geller and Rep. Brown have 100 percent agreement on, off the table," Posey said. "We could take half a dozen things off the table right away."