Insuring the 'Not Impoverished'

Governor Jeb Bush remarked Friday that "maybe" the legislature "should look" at the possibility of capping individual Citizens Property insurance policies at $1 million. Kathy Bushous and Mark Hollis write the story for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel .

Turns out that million-dollar-plus structures make up only two percent of Citizens policies, but ten percent of the state-owned insurance company's total exposure:

There are 6,024 homes in Citizens that are insured for more than $1 million, said Citizens spokesman Justin Glover, and collectively those homes represent more than $13.7 billion in exposure for Citizens. * * * Most of those pricey homes are in South Florida, Glover said.

My goodness, what will these homeowners do if Citizens won't fully insure them? Not to worry.

"These are people who, generally speaking, can very well afford private insurance," says Robert Hartwig, identified as chief economist for the non-profit Insurance Information Institute. "We're talking about people who are, generally speaking, not impoverished."

Not impoverished, perhaps, until they discover Citizens won't pay off on anyone's insurance policy.