When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says that he wants to make America more like Florida, he's probably not referring to the state's market for home insurance.
The Guardian reports that the crisis in home insurance in Florida reached a boiling point this week when Farmers Insurance pulled out of the market due to the high cost of insuring houses in the hurricane-prone Sunshine State.
While DeSantis' administration blamed Farmers' exit on "wokeness," the reality is that six other insurers went insolvent in Florida in just the last year, meaning that homeowners have fewer and fewer options.
"If my homeowner insurance premium goes up further... I may have to sell up and move to another state," 68-year-old Florida resident Andrea tells the Guardian.
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Fellow Florida resident Ian Brown similarly tells the publication that he has been getting walloped by insurance costs -- and it's been getting worse since his previous insurer went belly up last year.
"I panicked and called every insurance broker I knew," he said. "They all said getting cover was impossible now."
He eventually found an insurer who was willing to cover his house for hurricane insurance -- but only at an annual rate of $13,000 a year.
The Guardian notes that DeSantis has been accused of some Florida residents of dragging his feet on addressing the cost of home insurance in the state and has instead focused his efforts on bills that restrict the activities of drag queens.
