What is David Jolly doing about Florida's rising insurance costs?

Why insurance costs are crushing Florida

Florida ranks at or near the top of every credible analysis of homeowners insurance costs in the country, with average annual premiums ranging from roughly $5,400 to over $14,000 depending on home value and coverage level.^[2] Multiple national carriers pulled out of Florida between 2021 and 2024, citing hurricane-loss volatility. Florida led the nation in homeowner insurance non-renewal rates at 2.99 percent of policies in 2023, roughly 280 percent higher than 2018.^[3]

The math is brutal for working families. Insurance adds hundreds of dollars per month on top of mortgage payments. Renters pay those costs too, embedded in rent. The result is that about 15 to 20 percent of Florida homeowners are now uninsured against property loss, the highest share in any state with a developed mortgage market.^[2]

Reform efforts from Tallahassee focused on litigation costs, assignment-of-benefits restrictions in 2019, and broader tort reform in 2022 and 2023.^[4] Those measures reduced one cost driver, but they did not address the underlying structural problem. Hurricane risk sits inside every private policy. Each insurer carries thin capital reserves relative to potential storm losses, so they add massive risk margins on top of the actuarial cost. Private carriers are not coming back at affordable rates.

The state catastrophic fund proposal

The candidate proposes expanding the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund to absorb hurricane and wind coverage entirely out of the private market.^[1] The FHCF already exists as a state-run reinsurance pool, with a balance of $7.12 billion as of December 31, 2024, and statutory authority to cover up to $17 billion in losses with an additional financing capacity of about $11.2 billion.^[5] The candidate's plan would shift the fund from backstopping insurers to replacing them for hurricane coverage, allowing the state to pool risk across millions of homes rather than forcing each carrier to price for worst-case hurricane exposure.

Homeowners would still pay premiums for hurricane coverage, but the premiums would flow to the state pool rather than private insurers. Because the state can spread loss exposure across all Florida properties and can finance post-disaster recovery through bonding rather than relying on pre-event capital reserves, the cost per household drops dramatically. The candidate projects savings of 60 to 70 percent.^[1]

This is not a bailout. It is a risk-pooling mechanism, the same way Medicare and Social Security pool risk across millions of people. Homeowners still pay in. The state absorbs the financing cost, which is substantially lower than the risk margin every private insurer currently adds. Florida would lead the country in providing actuarially sound hurricane coverage at a fraction of the private-market cost.^[1]

Who benefits from lower insurance costs

Homeowners paying insurance directly see immediate savings, roughly $200 to $600 per month depending on current coverage. For retirees on fixed income, that is the difference between staying in Florida and being forced to sell. For first-time buyers facing median home prices of $420,000 and mortgage rates around 6.36 percent, the insurance savings bring monthly housing costs back toward what wages can support.^[6][7]

Renters benefit too. Landlords pay property insurance and pass those costs through to tenants. Half of Florida renters are now cost-burdened, spending more than 30 percent of income on housing.^[8] When insurance costs drop, rents follow. Market competition does not allow landlords to pocket the full savings when their input costs fall sharply.

Condo owners, already crushed by SB 4-D structural reserve requirements and special assessments, would see lower association insurance costs on master policies. That means lower dues and fewer special assessments on top of the unit-level savings each owner gets. The catastrophic fund helps stabilize the condo market across the state.^[9]

How the plan differs from existing reforms

The current approach relies on litigation reform and depopulation of Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, the state-created insurer of last resort. Citizens peaked at about 1.4 million policies in 2023 and has dropped to roughly 395,000 as of the start of 2026 through aggressive depopulation programs that moved policies back to private carriers.^[10] But most of those policies moved at higher premiums. Litigation reform reduced one pressure point, but it did nothing to change the structural reality that private carriers cannot afford to cover hurricane risk at prices Florida families can pay.

The catastrophic fund is structurally different. It separates hurricane coverage from the private market entirely rather than trying to coax private carriers back in. Private insurers would still cover fire, theft, liability, and other perils. The state would absorb hurricane and wind, the biggest cost driver. This is the only model that delivers affordability at scale without sacrificing coverage quality.

Timeline and implementation

Full premium savings would take two to three years to flow through to homeowner bills. The catastrophic fund expansion requires legislative authorization plus operational scaling of the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund infrastructure. That means appropriations in the first legislative session, rule-making and actuarial modeling in year one, phased enrollment starting year two, and full statewide rollout by year three. The FHCF already has the operational foundation, so this is an expansion of an existing state capability rather than building from scratch.^[5]

The candidate has committed to introducing the full legislative package on day one as governor, treating this as the top affordability priority for working families, retirees, and renters across Florida.^[1]