Soggy, slow-moving Fay offers lessons

Paying for insurance

The Aug. 22 editorial, “Soggy,
slow-moving Fay offers lessons,” contains a lot of common sense, but
your call for state regulations to ’’spread costs more evenly among all
property owners’’ makes no sense at all.

The Florida
Hurricane Catastrophe Fund and Florida Citizens Property Insurance
Corp. already spread the costs too widely. If a major storm hits the
state, just about everyone (even those who don’t own homes) will pay
enormous special taxes (called assessments) to pay off insurance
claims.

Insurance serves its function best when risk
factors, not politics, determine rates. The government can assist by
doing things like improving building standards, helping people upgrade
their homes and even providing direct assistance to people of modest
means. But increased insurance regulation is the last thing Florida
needs.