Back in May, State Farm made an announcement that shocked many of its loyal customers: The company was no longer willing to take on any new home insurance policies in California.
The decision, it said in a statement, was made "due to historic increases in construction costs outpacing inflation, rapidly growing catastrophe exposure, and a challenging reinsurance market."
READ MORE: Allstate Makes Big Change That'll Leave Many In a Huge State Looking for New Insurance
In June, Allstate hopped on the same train for the same reason, saying. "The cost to insure new home customers in California is far higher than the price they would pay for policies due to wildfires, higher costs for repairing homes and higher reinsurance premium."
Now Florida is the next state to face this problem. Farmers Insurance has announced that it will no longer offer policies in the state. As of the time of this writing, Farmers Insurance served roughly 100,000 customers in Florida.
Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, who oversees insurance companies in the state, was quick to blame the move on "wokeness" and called Farmers "the Bud Light of insurance."
I’ve always said that when big decisions are made on insurance the policyholder is rarely in the room; unfortunately @WeAreFarmers proved me right. I’ve asked my team to put their heads together in holding Farmers Insurance accountable. I want additional scrutiny on this company. pic.twitter.com/fDgadXndfx
— Jimmy Patronis (@JimmyPatronis) July 12, 2023
In the meantime, many affected by the policy change are calling the situation "insurance crisis" and showed
Farmers Insurance has just pulled out of Florida where they insure 100,000+ homes.
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) July 11, 2023
Below is a video I took of Fort Myers Beach just last week, 9 months after Hurricane Ian hit us. There are literally hundreds of homes and businesses still like this. Although we are rebuilding… pic.twitter.com/ZJKLdGOkZ1
Others were quick to blame Ron DeSantis, who has angered many Floridians due to his ongoing war with Disney and his general "war on wokeness."
On Tuesday, Farmers Insurance informed Florida that it was dropping home, auto and umbrella policies, making it the fourth company to leave the Florida market in the last year.
— Amee Vanderpool (@girlsreallyrule) July 12, 2023
Congrats @GovRonDeSantis, you're literally crushing it. https://t.co/JcMggcOKtb
Due to increased extreme volatile climate changes in Florida Farmers Insurance informed the state it was dropping home, auto, and umbrella policies.
— LanaQuest aka RosaSparks (@LqLana) July 13, 2023
Insurance companies in Florida have raised premiums; cut coverage and left the state.
Farmers is the fourth company to leave the…
Reminder that Governor Ron DeSantis vetoed funding in this year's budget for infrastructure and drainage improvements in areas that were hard hit by Hurricane Ian last year and experienced extensive flooding.
— Eleanor McDonough 🏳️⚧️ 🏳️🌈 (@Eleanor_McD) July 11, 2023
No wonder insurance companies are fleeing.https://t.co/eWIcQ0MYk8
This makes Farmers the fifth home insurance company to leave Florida, following Universal Insurance Company of North America, Southern Fidelity Insurance Company, and Gulfstream Property and Casualty Insurance Company.
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