Special Section: Insurance Crisis

The Next Step

Posted Jan 16, 2007 by Baird Helgeson

Updated Jan 16, 2007 at 09:53 PM

Initially, members of Having Affordable Coverage were a little disheartened when they boarded the bus back to Pasco County.

Some were upset more lawmakers didn’t attend the rally and that leaders of the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee wouldn’t let them speak before they had to leave. A few grumbled that the best thing about the trip was the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches the group provided.

The hum of the bus’ engine and the miles on the road seemed to wash away at least some of the hard feelings.

Talk of writing scathing letters to lawmakers softened into plans of asking their support in repealing a law that allows insurers to raise rates without regulatory approval.

Ginny Stevans, the group’s president, spent most of the ride back talking with lawmakers and other advocates in Tallahassee. She began to believe that the change, which the group supports, has a good chance of passing during the week-long special session. It’s not everything the group wants, but it’s better than nothing.

“You can hammer the lawmakers, but please wait until after they include amendment,” Stevans told the group.

The bus arrived in Pasco County about an hour later and riders filed out to their cars.

The mood had turned more upbeat and members spoke with various television news crews.

Still, lawmakers should expect to get bombarded with letters and calls from the group before the end of the special session. Members say they won’t let their issues die.

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Media Savvy

Posted Jan 16, 2007 by Baird Helgeson

Updated Jan 16, 2007 at 06:18 PM

Perhaps this group is getting a little too media savvy.

Several members of the group are tallying how many interviews they did with various television and newspaper journalists. Some are calling home telling family members to set their VCRs to record the newscast of stations that interviewed them.

A few have come back to my seat on the bus to share their thoughts about the day or the property insurance crisis (all much appreciated).

John Quinn took it a step further and decided to start issuing me hand-written statements during the day. So far, he has given be two of these news releases.

In one, he criticizes Allstate and State Farm insurance companies for socking Floridians with higher rates while spending millions of dollars sponsoring pro sporting events, everything from football to auto racing.

He is more hopeful in the other note. “We are witnessing a united front of all classes of people, melting together, to save our homes and families from sinkhole premiums that have reached ransom levels.”

Though 76 and retired, Quinn could have a successful career in public relations.

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Blue Tape For Blue Tarps

Posted Jan 16, 2007 by Baird Helgeson

Updated Jan 16, 2007 at 01:05 PM

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We have arrived in Tallahassee.

Bus riders spent the last few minutes before we arrived putting on blue armbands to signify all the homeowners who still haven’t settled insurance claims and have blue tarps on their roofs. The armbands are made of blue painting tape and for awhile they streamed down from the overhead compartments on the bus as people took a piece from the roll and then sent it along to the row ahead.

As the bus neared the Capitol, the members of the groups were stunned to see perhaps a dozen journalists from various television stations and newspapers.

“I think we got their attention,” said Ginny Stevans, president of Having Affordable Coverage.

 

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Insurance Crisis = PB&J

Posted Jan 16, 2007 by Baird Helgeson

Updated Jan 16, 2007 at 01:00 PM

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We met the other bus about 30 minutes north in Hernando County. The bellies of both busses are filled with protest signs for the rally.

Passengers on the bus from Pasco are sharing insurance horror stories and debating who is to blame for the crisis.

Some blame former Gov. Jeb Bush for not doing enough to drive down rates in the final years of his term. Others blame Mother Nature for brewing up the eight storms that hit the state in two years, beginning in 2004.

Rally participants were told to bring bag lunches for the trip, but organizers brought peanut butter, jelly and bread for those who forgot a lunch.
“For many of us, that’s all we can afford to eat after we paid our property insurance bills,” says Ginny Stevans, HAC’s president. “We think it makes the point.”

Stevans is organizing groups to personally lobby lawmakers after the rally on the Capitol steps.

Stevans slowly makes her way up the aisle of the bus asking people if they want to lobby lawmakers as well as rally on the steps. She warns the mostly-retired group that there could be a lot of walking involved.

“Lobby?” she asks. “Rally and lobby?”

She jots down a name and then steps forward.

“Rally and lobby?”

 

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The Rats In Tally

Posted Jan 16, 2007 by Baird Helgeson

Updated Jan 16, 2007 at 01:00 PM

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  It’s 7 a.m. in a Dillard’s parking lot in Port Richey and already Peter Garbacki is talking about rats.
 
He’s a member of the group Having Affordable Coverage, formerly known as Homeowners Against Citizens, which rented a bus to take more than 50 homeowners to Tallahassee to protest soaring property insurance premiums. The group plans to rally during the beginning of a special legislative session that begins today to deal with the insurance crisis.

  “The rats have seven days to fix the problem,” Garbacki said.

  Garbacki has battled Citizens Property Insurance Corp. for two years over a mold claim he said the state-created insurer won’t pay. Garbacki said he doubts that lawmakers have the strength or desire to stand up to the powerful insurance industry.

  “I’m going there to watch the rats lie to us,” he said.

  As a retired Spring Hill fire commissioner, Garbacki is concerned that the state doesn’t have updated records that pinpoint the location of fire hydrants and fire stations. More hydrants and stations mean lower property insurance rates for homeowners. He thinks the lists are obsolete, which could mean that homeowners are paying needlessly higher insurance rates.

  A self-proclaimed community watchdog, Garbacki said he looks forward to stirring things up in Tallahassee.

  As the bus left the parking lot, Garbacki and other members of the group watched several television news crews that showed up to cover the departure.

 

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