Policies continue piling up at citizens insurance

Disastrous hurricane Matthew (2016) on Florida coastline.

The state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp. continued to add thousands of customers a week in January and ended the month with nearly 777,000 policies, according to newly released data.

Citizens had 776,790 policies as of Jan. 31, up from 759,305 on Dec. 31. Citizens, which was created as an insurer of last resort, has seen rapid growth during the past two years as financially troubled private insurers have sought large rate increases and dropped customers.

On Jan. 31, 2020, for example, Citizens had 443,228 policies, reflecting about a 75 percent increase in policies during the past two years.

Florida lawmakers are considering a series of measures aimed at shifting more policies from Citizens into the private market, at least in part because of concerns about financial risks if the state gets hit with a major hurricane or multiple hurricanes.