TALLAHASSEE— Florida’s Insurance Consumer Advocate, Sean Shaw, hosted a roundtable in Largo, Florida late last week, in order to establish a positive dialogue among advocacy groups and organizations that have an interest in Florida’s insurance issues. At Friday’s meeting, Shaw brought up a variety of different proposed insurance initiatives, in the hope of bringing together groups from across the state to better communicate on behalf of Florida’s insurance consumers.
“This meeting was the catalyst for us to form a coalition among the different advocacy groups and create a stronger, more unified voice when presenting the concerns of our citizens to the lawmakers of the state,” said Shaw.
Shaw, along with Terry Butler, a senior attorney for the Office of the Insurance Consumer Advocate, presented to the forum several proposed initiatives concerning health care insurance, property insurance, workers compensation insurance and title insurance. The roundtable also included a presentation covering property insurance reforms by the advocate organization Fair Insurance Rates In Monroe (FIRM), of Key West, Florida.
Florida’s CFO, Alex Sink, joined the forum via phone and praised all participants of the roundtable discussion. “I would just like to thank you all for thinking that it was important to participate in this discussion. Although I know we will not agree on everything, I think that this meeting is a big step in the right direction,” Sink told the group.
Participants expressed appreciation for the Insurance Consumer Advocate as well as the CFO in supporting the idea of an advocate coalition in the state of Florida. “It is wonderful that we have the support of an aggressive consumer advocate who has the support of the Chief Financial Officer (Sink),” said Bill Newton, executive director of the advocacy group, Florida Consumer Action Network.
Participants at Friday’s roundtable included: Bill Newton, Florida Consumer Action Network; Brad Ashwell, Florida Public Interest Group; Heather Carruthers and Colleen Reppetto, Fair Insurance Rates of Monroe; Jan Bergemann, Cyber Citizens for Justice; and several others.
For further information about the roundtable and future meetings, please visit the Office of the Insurance Consumer Advocate online at MyFloridaCFO.com/ICA or contact Insurance Consumer Advocate Shaw at 850-413-5923 or insuranceconsumeradvocate@myfloridacfo.com.
The Insurance Consumer Advocate is appointed by Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink and is committed to finding solutions to insurance issues facing Floridians, calling attention to questionable insurance practices, promoting a viable insurance market responsive to the needs of Florida’s diverse population and assuring that rates are fair and justified.