Washington, D.C., November 18, 2008—The Competitive Enterprise Institute is expanding its existing project on insurance regulation and has hired Christian Cámara, a former state legislative aide, to serve as director of its new Florida office. The new Office will be located in Tallahassee, Florida and focus on important insurance issues throughout the Southeast. Policy Analyst Michelle Minton will oversee the efforts of the new office as part of CEI’s Center for Risk, Regulation, and Markets. Senior Fellow Eli Lehrer will continue to oversee CEI’s overall work on insurance and credit markets.

“I am very excited to be joining the CEI team,” said Florida Office Director Christian Cámara. “As a lifelong citizen of Florida, I am concerned about the state’s many challenges, but have always felt that these may be positively addressed through our nation's core principles of liberty, limited government, and the free market. CEI has been a national leader in advancing these principles, and I look forward to working with them to promote meaningful property insurance reform in Florida.”

The CEI’s Center will focus on efforts to encourage sensible mitigation strategies, reduce the financial risks that the Hurricane Catastrophe Fund poses to the state, cut the size of the Florida Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, and protect the environment.

“CEI’s Center for Risk, Regulation, and Markets has become a leading voice in the national debate on catastrophic policy issues and the central voice in Florida's regulatory discourse,” said Minton. “We are very excited to be opening an office in Florida which we see as the eye of the storm affecting the entire nation.”

Florida has been at the center of the debate over insurance reform and the questions of who really pays the costs of risky decisions. As with all financial risks, the more government actions spare individuals from the pain of making poor decisions, the more reckless people will become.