Florida is potentially on the verge of an insurance disaster, and lawmakers could be about to push us over the edge.

Aren’t we all tired of the endless, circular battle between plaintiff attorneys, insurers and consumers? The same arguments, the same blame game — year after year, decade after decade — while homeowners are left wondering why their rates keep rising and their choices keep shrinking.

Now that battle has reached a breaking point. If lawmakers succeed in unraveling the critical insurance reforms passed in 2022, Florida could return to the crisis that sent rates skyrocketing, bankrupted insurers, and left homeowners with fewer and fewer options.

This isn’t speculation — we have very recent history as our guide.

It’s exactly what happened between 2017 and 2022 when rampant litigation and fraudulent claims destabilized the market and sent over a dozen insurance companies into insolvency. The 2022 reforms stopped the bleeding, restored reinsurer confidence, and put Florida back on a path toward sustainability.

Now, those hard-fought gains are under attack. More than 700 pages of proposed legislation are moving through Tallahassee, many backed by the trial bar, attempting to undo those reforms and reignite the cycle of legal abuse that nearly destroyed the industry. If these bills pass, Florida will return to an insurance nightmare — except this time, there will be no way back.

Florida’s insurance market is at risk

Before the 2022 reforms, Florida accounted for nearly 80% of the nation’s homeowner insurance lawsuits while representing only 9% of total claims. This was no accident — it was a deliberate legal assault that siphoned billions from the system, forcing insurers into bankruptcy and leaving homeowners with premium hikes and policy non-renewals.

The Florida Legislature acted in 2022 to stop this crisis by eliminating lawsuit loopholes that allowed excessive legal fees, curbing fraudulent claims that drove up costs for everyone, and stabilizing the market so insurers could remain in Florida.

The results? Insurer failures slowed, reinsurance prices stabilized, and for the first time in years, premiums are beginning to come down.

Now, certain lawmakers — under pressure from the trial bar — are trying to reverse these reforms.

These bills are not about protecting consumers. They are designed to bring back a litigation model that allowed attorneys to collect billions in fees — at the expense of every Florida homeowner.

Fast forward to 2027: The insurance market collapse

If lawmakers dismantle the 2022 reforms, the results won’t be theoretical — they will be catastrophic.

In 2027, a Category 4 hurricane barrels into Florida’s west coast. Storm surge devastates entire neighborhoods, leaving thousands of homes in ruins. Families return to their property, desperate to begin rebuilding.

But when they call their insurers, they find nothing but dead ends. The private market is gone, and Florida now has only one option left: a bloated, bureaucratic, state-run insurer.

Anyone can see how this will unfold — we have a perfect example in the federally controlled flood program, the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which is disastrously underfunded each year and calamitously teeters in paying claims.

Claims that once took weeks now drag on for months — or even years. Premiums have doubled or tripled with no competition to keep rates in check, and homeowners who never filed a claim are still paying thousands in additional assessments to cover the government insurer’s losses.

With no private insurers left, plaintiff attorneys who thrived on excessive lawsuits now have only one target to sue: the state-run insurer.

And when that entity goes insolvent? The government raises taxes and assessments on every Florida homeowner.

Meanwhile, Florida’s housing market is in free fall. High insurance premiums have pushed families out of homeownership, driven property values down, and made real estate investment nearly impossible.

And it all happened because, in 2025, lawmakers made the wrong choice.

We cannot allow this to happen

This is not a doomsday prediction — it’s exactly what will happen if lawmakers choose to undo the 2022 reforms.

A functioning insurance market requires balance. Insurers must be allowed to make a fair profit – if they cannot, they will leave the state. Likewise, homeowners must have access to affordable, reliable coverage – the only way to achieve that is through a free enterprise competitive market.

And finally, plaintiff attorneys must hold bad actors accountable — without exploiting loopholes that destabilize the system.

If proposed bills pass, Florida’s future is already written. Homeowners will pay double or triple their current rates — if they can find coverage at all. A single, inefficient, government-run insurer will handle every claim — poorly.

Assessments and taxes will skyrocket, forcing every homeowner to subsidize the state’s financial failures and ultimately, the real estate market will crumble, making Florida an unaffordable place to live.

Reinsurers are watching — and homeowners will pay the price

The 2022 reforms stabilized Florida’s market, giving insurers and their global reinsurers the confidence to continue providing coverage in this high-risk state.

Because of these reforms, rates are finally beginning to come down. For the first time in seven years, reinsurers are poised to lower their costs during the June 1 renewals, and new insurers are entering the Florida market, increasing competition and lowering insurance premiums.

When legislators finally acted in late 2022, it was understood that pulling out of this nosedive would take three to five years. This time frame was critical to reverse years of damage caused by rampant frivolous lawsuits that crippled Florida’s property insurance industry.

We are only halfway there.

But all of this progress is at risk. If Florida sends the message that it is returning to an unstable, litigation-driven system, reinsurers will respond immediately — by increasing their rates. Those costs will be passed directly to insurers, who will be forced to pass them on to homeowners.

Instead of premiums continuing to drop, they will surge again — erasing all the progress made over the last three years.

A call to action: Stop these bills before it’s too late

Make no mistake — this is an absolute watershed moment, and lawmakers must not allow Florida to go back to the chaos of 2017–22.

What can you do? Call your state Representatives and demand they protect the 2022 reforms. Reject the misinformation from trial lawyers and hold politicians accountable.

Demand that journalists report the facts — not manufactured outrage.

And finally, educate your neighbors and business leaders on why a functioning private insurance market is critical to Florida’s economy.

The path ahead is clear — we either preserve a competitive insurance market that keeps rates fair, claims moving and insurers in Florida … or we let reckless legislation destroy everything we’ve built.

If we act now, we can stop this disaster before it starts.

But if we wait?

By the time Floridians wake up to the consequences, it will be too late.

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Dennis P. Gagnon, Jr., founded Affordable Home Insurance (AHI) in 2006, one of the leading independent insurance firms in northwest Florida. Gagnon also serves as its president. The firm has office locations in Miramar Beach and Panama City.

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