Property Insurance Crisis
Skyrocketing property insurance rates have crippled Florida families and contributed to the weak housing market here in Florida.
It is a FAILURE OF LEADERSHIP on the part of my opponent to address this situation, which has only worsened as he served in Congress. It is hard to imagine that a congressman who lives in South Florida and has witnessed the damage of Hurricanes Andrew, Wilma, Katrina and others first hand would not take action or show any leadership on this critical issue.
Raul whole-heartedly support the legislation by Congressman Klein and Mahoney, who despite being newly elected freshman, showed real leadership and tackled this critical situation.
The Klein / Mahoney Legislation:
Natural Catastrophe Risk Consortium : Establishes a completely voluntary Federal/State Consortium to encourage and facilitate ceding of natural catastrophe risk from Qualified Reinsurance Programs into the private markets, particularly the catastrophe bond markets.
- Consortium serves as conduit issuer of catastrophe bonds and coordinator of reinsurance agreements on behalf of the participating States’ Qualified Reinsurance Programs. Consortium does not assume underlying risks, take possession of bond proceeds, nor can it incur debt.
- Consortium intended to leverage economies of scale and the diversification of the type and location of catastrophe risks to achieve reinsurance costs lower than those available to states independently.
- Consortium intended to increase the efficiency of the catastrophe bond market through standardization.
National Homeowners Insurance Stabilization Program : Creates Federal loan program to provide post-event financing to Qualified Reinsurance Programs while those programs accumulate capital sufficient to pay their reasonably anticipated reinsurance losses.
