Former Florida Insurance Consumer Advocate Sean Shaw today commended theSarasota Herald-Tribune forpublishing the Florida State Insurers Report Card, a consumer friendly tool created in 2007 under Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, but never released to the public due to objections from the insurance industry.
?his is the report card that big insurance companies don? want consumers to see,?said Sean Shaw, the leader of thePolicyholders of Florida coalition. ?t? a clear, easy-to-understand tool for consumers, one that offers both transparency and accountability – no wonder the insurance industry is pushing legislation to keep this information from the public.”
From theSarasota Herald-Tribune:
After years of wrestling with the industry, Florida’s insurance consumer advocate created a report card grading property insurers on customer service and payment of claims.A trial run in October showedone out of three carriers fail in timely payments, andone out of four had high numbers of complaints.
Only 12 did well enough in both categories to get an overall A.
At the urging of property insurers, Floridalawmakers are considering legislation to kill the unpublished grading system. “I don’t think the state of Florida should treat businesses like fourth grade children,” argues House sponsor Rep. Scott Plakon, R-Longwood.
About the grades: Scores were derived from hard-to-get but public sources, including complaint calls logged by the Department of Financial Services and claims payment records reported yearly by insurers. Grades reflect data from 2004 to 2008 and are on a companywide (national) basis.
