{"id":359249,"date":"2026-07-31T20:23:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T20:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/359249\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T20:23:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T20:23:11","slug":"earle-ford-the-american-dream-the-florida-nightmare-now-a-national-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/359249\/","title":{"rendered":"Earle Ford: The American Dream. The Florida nightmare. Now a national story."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>What is happening to Florida homeowners has just become a national story.<\/p>\n

Bloomberg News just published an investigative report on Florida\u2019s property insurance crisis \u2014 Florida\u2019s Fix for Insurance Crisis Puts More Risk on Homeowners<\/a>. It documented a St. Petersburg family, Jennifer and RJ Garbowicz, whose home was destroyed by Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Their policy limit was $713,000. Their insurer\u2019s offer: $2,279. They have been displaced for nearly two years. Former employees at Florida\u2019s largest private insurer told Bloomberg they were pressured to make offers they knew were far below what homeowners were owed.<\/p>\n

One said simply, \u201cWe didn\u2019t pay for what we owe.\u201d<\/p>\n

I have been hearing this story across Florida all campaign long.<\/p>\n

Along the campaign trail, I met Manny, a homeowner in Sarasota County. His adjuster put his Hurricane Milton roof damage at $108,000. His insurer opened at $2,000. He eventually settled for two-thirds of what the roof actually needed. His attorney told him the math was simple: Insurers lowball because they know only about one in four homeowners will ever litigate.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

He is not unusual. He is Florida.<\/p>\n

Bloomberg found that 40.3% of claims in Florida were closed without any payment after Hurricanes Helene and Milton, more than any other state in the country. Premiums are up 14.3% since the 2023 reforms went into effect. And these families have been told, by the officials responsible for protecting them, that they have \u201cthe best coverage at the best price.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is not true. And the officials saying it know it is not true.<\/p>\n

The crisis in Florida\u2019s property insurance market is not just a hurricane problem or a market problem. It is a government accountability problem: years of regulatory capture, industry-written policy and an enforcement apparatus that has looked the other way while homeowners paid the bill.<\/p>\n

I am running for CFO because the CFO office has the authority to change that. The reforms I am proposing are what you would expect from a CFO entrusted to find the right community solution: someone who audited the problem, listened to the people affected by it and is committed to using every legal means available to protect Florida homeowners and oversee a functioning insurance market. Guided by facts, not industry money. Accountable to Floridians.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My reform proposal identifies specific areas for reform, each with defined initiatives, concrete timelines and public reporting requirements so that Floridians can hold me accountable. Not promises. Deliverables. And I will work directly with the Legislature, Republicans and Democrats alike, because Florida homeowners do not care which party fixes this. They care that it gets fixed.<\/p>\n

Here are three examples.<\/p>\n

Accountability. Florida homeowners deserve to know how their rates are set, how their claims are processed and what insurers pay for repairs. Right now, there is no transparency. SB 7052, the Insurer Accountability Law, passed in 2023 with unanimous bipartisan support but has gone unenforced. As CFO, I will enforce it: a dedicated compliance unit, an annual Bad Faith Insurer Report naming carriers whose denial rates exceed the state average and a public portal where homeowners can file and track complaints.<\/p>\n

Community Advocacy. As CFO, community advocacy will be a permanent part of how this office operates. Throughout this campaign, I have been on a listening tour across Florida, hearing directly from homeowners. As CFO, I will formalize that commitment through a FLOIR-sponsored (Florida Office of Insurance) Florida Homeowner Resource Center and regional town halls in high-claim-density counties. The result: a Policyholder Bill of Rights, with claims paid on a clock and real recourse for every homeowner.<\/p>\n

The Florida Insurance Victim Fund. Some homeowners did everything right and were failed anyway by carriers the state licensed and regulators who looked away. As CFO, I will direct the Department of Financial Services to design a dedicated compensation fund for verified victims of bad-faith denial, systematic underpayment and carrier abandonment, with no new taxes and no additional insurance fees on homeowners. Every carrier whose conduct generates Victim Fund claims will be named publicly. Every year. Permanently.<\/p>\n

The American Dream should not end in a nightmare. Florida owes you a government that restores the promise.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Earle Ford is a candidate for Florida Chief Financial Officer (earleforcfo.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What is happening to Florida homeowners has just become a national story. Bloomberg News just published an investigative…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[146431,146432,146433,146434,69614,146435,28,21462,7484,30,145223,146436,29,32328,27089,15656,3125,1802,146437,70475,146438,146439,146440,146441,146442,146443,4135,146444],"class_list":["post-359249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-bad-faith-insurer-report","tag-bad-faith-claims","tag-bloomberg-news","tag-cfo-race","tag-earle-ford","tag-floir","tag-florida","tag-florida-chief-financial-officer","tag-florida-department-of-financial-services","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-homeowners","tag-florida-insurance-victim-fund","tag-florida-news","tag-florida-office-of-insurance-regulation","tag-florida-property-insurance","tag-homeowners-insurance","tag-hurricane-helene","tag-hurricane-milton","tag-insurance-accountability","tag-insurance-reform","tag-insurer-accountability-law","tag-jennifer-garbowicz","tag-policyholder-bill-of-rights","tag-property-insurance-crisis","tag-regulatory-capture","tag-rj-garbowicz","tag-sarasota-county","tag-sb-7052"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}