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 State lawmakers presented dozens of ideas today aimed at Fixing Florida’s broken insurance market, but as Mike Vasilinda reports, none of them can guarantee an immediate savings.

Hear it here: Insurance Ideas

One idea to solve the insurance crisis would have the state insure any loss over a billion dollars. Sponsor Kevin Ambler says the cost would be picked up by guaranteeing the state’s sixth cent of sales tax. “One third of every sales tax dollar is not paid by Floridians. It’s paid by tourists.” says Ambler, R-Tampa.

For the last three days lawmakers have tossed out ideas, noting that what is being done now just isn’t working. One idea is to stockpile lumber at today’s cost for rebuilding later.
So far, nothing the legislature is talking about will guarantee that rates go down immediately. In fact, the hope is that rates will just stabilize for the time being.

Democrats are suggesting the creation a super board with super powers to roll back some rates. ‘We’ve got to start treating this problem like, just really the greatest economic crisis Florida has faced. That’s exactly what it is.” says Monority Leader Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach.

And with the election of Charlie Crist, the states insurance commissioner is now embracing the idea of requiring companies that sell everything but wind insurance in the state to also assume that risk. According to Kevin McCarty, “If you’re gonna make profits in Florida and participate in the good times, we need to spread that risk as much as we can.”

The irony is that at the end of the day, just about every idea suggested so far takes the state deeper into the insurance business….which is exactly what it is hoping to avoid.

The legislature will begin a special session on insurance on January 16th.