Topic: Insurance Rates

Gov. Rick Scott signed SB 1770, which is designed to reduce Citizens Property Insurance Corp.'s risk, but also took a swipe at its management for not returning bonuses and rushing through a deal with a private company to take over its policies last week. ... Related Research: Governor's Press Office: Gov. Scott Signs Bill to Reform Citizens, Statement from Citizens' President/CEO and Executive Director Barry Gilway, and Integrity Florida: Holding Citizens Property Insurance accountable.

The deal gives nine month-old Heritage Property and Casualty Co. up to $52 million to take over 60,000 policies throughout the state. Heritage will be allowed to select policies without any claims filed over the past five months.

Lawmakers stayed away from more strident reforms to the state's insurance entities, as comprehensive changes to Citizens Property Insurance Corp. and the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund were watered down or blocked altogether.

The more modest reforms preferred by the House that do not boost rates for Citizens but reduce coverage for expensive properties and coastal areas were approved by the Senate.

Republicans blocked an attempt by Democrats to force a vote on a pro-gun amendment, trying to kill the bill.

The House rebuffed a bill favored by Senate leaders requiring oral cancer drugs be treated the same as other drugs. The Senate responded by inserting the provision in a bill favored by the insurance industry, and placing a tax break repeal already resisted by the House once into the same bill.

The feel-good nature of the session came to a grinding halt Tuesday as House Democrats used stall tactics to highlight the rejection of a plan to use federal money to provide health care to 1 million Floridians. Other top priorities of House and Senate leaders are dying or are being stalled in the session's final days.

After halting an alternative clearinghouse bill, the House put its watered-down Citizens Property Insurance Corp. bill in place of the more aggressive Senate version, SB 1770, ahead of a vote on the bill Tuesday.

Two competing visions of legislation overhauling Citizens Property Insurance Corp. are prepared for negotiations between the House and the Senate after the House passed HB 909, including more consumer protections than the Senate version.

The duel over a tax break for the insurance industry could portend a struggle between the two chambers over tax carve-outs for favored industries in the future.

The new version of SB 1770 keeps customers of Citizens Property Insurance Corp. as of Jan 1, 2014 under the 10 percent cap on annual rate hikes and now heads to the House.

SB 1888 moving away from a no-fault system and into mandatory bodily injury coverage for auto insurance isn't likely to make it to Gov. Scott's desk, but could return next year if an injunction against HB 119 from last year is upheld by the courts.

SB 1832 repealing a $220 million tax break for the insurance industry to pay for a reduction in vehicle registration fees cleared the Senate on a unanimous vote Wednesday.

Business groups and medical groups reached a deal on capping the costs of repackaged drugs, clearing a hurdle for SB 662 as it heads to the Senate floor.