[JeremyD]

The state of Florida is now the reinsurance company for all insurance companies in Florida. Even the big ones are reinsured by the state catastrophic fund.

[rant]The part about insurance companies that most people have their blinders on - is that they are for profit companies that have to answer to shareholders. Their executives make decisions based on the here and now, not on the past 30 years or the future 30 years.

Where insurance really got screwed up is when they started taking their actuarial tables from a 20 and 30 year average to a 5 year average. This was especially telling after the 2004 storm season.

That and you have Al Gore preaching that with global warming you have the propensity for more and more severe Hurricanes. That the sea levels are going to rise - Oh and you have the population increase in Florida and even more specifically along the coasts and barrier islands.

So - basically Florida was late in getting their building codes revamped. The insurance industry should have been socking the home owners who built 3' above sea level on the barrier islands (and they took their money for years and years without incident).

And now the insurance industry is in a mess.

Of course - the insurance industry is not the insurance industry anymore. It's the calculated risk industry. If you have a home that has the potential to have a loss (like it's in the state of florida) then - no - the risk might be to great.

And it's in health insurance too - If you are male and 22 years old they will accept your premiums gladly because they know you won't need to go to the doctor (AND THEY CAN MAKE MONEY OFF YOU)

I'm just waiting for one of these Hurricanes to make it's way up the East Coast - Washington D.C., NYC, Long Island... It's happened before - Then everybody can experience the joys of dealing with for profit companies that want to collect premiums but don't want to pay claims. [/rant]