What State Farm OUGHT To Say

In the middle of reading this morning's news about State Farm dropping another 50,000 policyholders in Florida, I sat up and laughed out loud at this quote from company spokesman Chris Neal:

"This is not an action we take lightly. But if there is any good news, we are still committed to Florida."

Still committed to Florida? STILL COMMITTED? Under what circumstance is an insurance company canceling 50,000 policies allowed to say that?

If the man were on a vaudeville stage, he would be pelted with vegetables. If he were at the Apollo, he would get the hook. If he said in the town square, he would be run out of town on a rail.

This is what the company ought to say:

"Today we are announcing that we will no longer be a Good Neighbor to another 50,000 Florida homeowners. We are canceling them as of Jan. 1. We are abandoning them. We know that this is going to cause them hardship. We know that most of them will be dumped into the Citizens pool and will have to pay more money.

"This is a decision of hard dollars. We still think we have too much risk in Florida. We will keep reducing our risk as long as we think it is justified. But we are fully aware that this is a contradiction of the advertising, of the PR, of the way that we have always tried to portray ourselves. We also know that we have a lot of gall continuing to ask Floridians to be State Farm customers for other lines of insurance. But we are going to keep doing it anyway, because in the end, we can."

Comments

[Lorraine]

Howard,

Couldn't have said it better myself.......when will it ever get better?? HOW will it ever get better?....the answers still elude us all. You got an idea???

[dawn]

Well, we've been paying State Farm homeowner's premiums for about 20 years. Never filed a claim in all those years and watched our rates climb every year. We live 2.1 miles from the coast, but we are high and dry in a no evac zone...I'm waiting to see if they drop us. My instincts tell me they will..."Get out while the getting's good" should be their motto, or "Like a bad neighbor, State Farm isn't there!"

[Boo Boo]

State Farm has my auto but not my homeowners. I just renewed my auto for the next 6 months. I will be shopping and dropping them.

[Larry]

Boo Boo, that's what I really can't understand. Why do Floridians continue to do business with a company that doesn't like them? And isn't that what State Farm is saying? Howard, you are right on the money, as usual. Those dopes up in Tallahassee are still patting themselves on the back for all that work they did in January lowering insurance rates and making insurance more available for the good citizens of Florida who elected them. It's farcical, it really is.

[Katrina]

And we were about to drop our USAA Auto Insurance to go with State Farm. After reading this, we're stickin' with USAA. Thanks Howard!

[Scott]

I am in a coastal area of pasco, but high and dry. if they drop me, I'm dropping them from my motorcycle, auto, my investment properties, and my life insurance.

[Joe]

I have been with State Farm (homeowner's and auto) for over 20 years and have never filed a claim. If they drop my homeowner's policy, I will drop them as my auto insurer and I will NEVER buy another policy from them regardless of where I live!

[David]

"Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there."

"There" as in Georgia, California, New York, Massachusetts, Ohio, Michigan, Colorado, Montana, etc. - everywhere but "here".

[Lucy]

They should fire their PR person and hire YOU, Howard.

But, then, what would we do without you?

[David Mathews]

Florida has sold its soul to the developers and concentrated its population within the "death zone" directly threatened by a major hurricane's storm surge along the coast.

Are insurance companies obligated to insure such properties? I don't believe so. These low-lying lands should never have been developed in the first place.

Has everyone already forgotten what Hurricane Katria did to the Mississippi coast? Florida's coast would suffer a similar amount of devastation in similar circumstances.

The insurance companies are making legitimate business decisions which Floridians should take seriously and therefore change their behavior accordingly.

The developers and even the government are providing Floridians with a false sense of security. If Floridians were wise they would retreat from the danger zone (the storm surge zone) along the coast. That's what State Farm is telling Florida, and we should listen.

There is another compelling reason for Floridians to retreat from the coast: Within ten years the United States of America will suffer perpetual gasoline shortages. How will Floridians evacuate from the coast without automobiles?

[David Mathews]

For those who are not yet aware of why the automobile-consumer culture is dying, here is a sobering news report:

"Mexico, Venezuela oil slumps could hit U.S. supply"

http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUSN1632560520070720?sp=true

The era of cheap & abundant oil is coming to an end. Scarce & expensive oil will drive the automobile to its inevitable extinction as a mode of personal transportation.

Fighting & losing a perpetual resource war in the Middle East isn't making our situation any better. Should something really terrible happen in Saudi Arabia our oil-addicted lifestyle could come to an end in a day.

Floridians should take this danger seriously because losing the automobile cannot help but destroy Florida's economy. What would happen to Orlando if there were no tourists?

Then there is the question: Florida's hurricane evacuation plans rely heavily upon personal automobiles. Without cars (without gasoline to operate the cars) these evacuation plans are nearly worthless.

[RB]

On one hand I agree. On the other hand, this is simple capitalism. It's a great system, one that has allowed this nation to gain exceptional wealth. But it has a dark side. We all know that from the price gouging that goes on after a hurricane moves through. Immoral? Probably. Simple supply and demand? You bet. State Farm is going to do whatever makes it the most money possible. It's the capitalist (and the American) way. Many of us are benefiting from that system. Sometimes it bites back. Hard to blame State Farm for wanting to make money. There's really no way to ask them to keep us at the expense of their own bottom line just because it's the right thing to do. That is the antithesis of capitalism. The alternative is allowing capitalism to work freely is more government, and after the events of this spring, do we really want that? As for the PR guy, he says it because it works. If we as a society are too stupid to realize it, then it's our fault, not his.

[John]

I am in a similar situation as Dawn. I live in a 1,100 Sq Ft. two bedroom house in Belleair Bluffs and am about a mile from the gulf. I am high and dry and in a non-evacuation zone. I have had no other auto insurance but State Farm since I started driving in 1980! I have had State Farm homeowner's insurance for 20 years. I just know I'll be dropped. I'd like to think that if we all dropped our auto insurance they would take notice, but I don't think it matters to them. They claim they'll make up the business by offering cheaper insurance inland. I blame the state government for letting this get out of control. Folks...Charlie Crist is a fraud. He uses nice words to fool you into thinking he cares about you. He is a career politician with eyes on Washington. I'll be in touch with my congressional delegation.

[David Mathews]

"On the other hand, this is simple capitalism. It's a great system, one that has allowed this nation to gain exceptional wealth. But it has a dark side."

Ahem ... capitalism does have a dark side, but you haven't seen it (yet). You should see what capitalism is doing to your planet ...

Do Floridians have a constitutional right to get insurance regardless of how dangerous a location they have chosen to inhabit?

Insurance companies that are refusing to insure homes in dangerous locations are doing their customers a favor. It is better to lose a home than to lose a life.

Remember Katrina?

It was a mistake, in the first place, for Florida to allow development within these danger zones. It is a much bigger mistake for Floridians to insist upon remaining in these locations after recent experience has notified us all of the dangers.

How many lives is Florida willing to sacrifice for the sake of its economy?

That is the question that we all need to ask.

Should Floridians continue to concentrate along the coastline even if that means that a thousand people could die when the next major hurricane passes overhead?

[Grumpy]

What bothers me is the rumor which is now a stated fact from the State Farm article. If you have their car insurance, you home insurance will not be dropped. I had heard rumors about Allstate for the same thing and it would interesting to start a bit of research on this. How about it out there. If you are a State Farm or Allstate customer that still has your home insurance because you carry their respective auto insurance, how about letting us all know. I think this should be investigated.

[David Mathews]

Gov. Crist's "Serve to Preserve: A Florida Summit on Global Climate Change"

http://www.flgov.com/climate_summit

Excellent.

Pinellas county (and all of its cities) should make fighting climate change a top priority. Pinellas county would suffer whether the oceans rise three, ten or twenty feet.

If we destroy this state for the sake of the automobile & air conditioner future generations will justifiably hate us.

[Boo Boo]

State Farm just added insult to injury. After making my payment for the next 6 months I just received a new Balance Due Notice. Guess what I got for being a loyal customer for the past 10yrs acccident free. Yup a 20% increase. Well slap me silly! Checked Geico yesterday full coverage on my car $640 a year compared to State Farm $1080 a year. I will say bye bye now.

[David Mathews]

I visited downtown Tampa this morning and walked on the streets surrounding the University of Tampa and the Tampa Museum of Art. Sunday is the best day to walk in Downtown Tampa because the place is virtually a ghost town.

Anyhow, as I walked along the sea wall which confines the Hillsborough to a cement channel, I happened to notice that the forces of erosion were already tearing it apart. Within the cracks life has re-established itself: grasses, weeds and plants. There was even a tree growing very well in the middle of the cement.

Life has also begun to reappear elsewhere: In the street, on the sidewalks, and also on buildings. It is all very beautiful. Does anyone really love asphalt & cement?

Nature has plans for Downtown Tampa. Those plans do not include streets, sidewalks or buildings. The Hillsborough river is also growing restless. The river wants its freedom. Those walls don't have a chance.

No one should underestimate the power or the pesistence of life. The forces of Nature demolished entire mountain chains and carved the Grand Canyon. There isn't any human construction on this Earth which can defeat the erosive and living forces of Nature.

Look at this world. Look at this civilization. All of these things are coming to an end. As they should.

[George Wilson]

I drive about 1,000 miles per year, to, and from the doctor's office, and to the grocery about once a week. Maybe a short ride over to Dunedin Causeway, just to get out of the house for a few minutes. I had been complaining about the cost of gas constantly, and my cost per mile per gallon. My car gets about 20 miles per gallon in town, and I average buying $20.00 worth per month. HOLY MOLIE !! I hadn't calculated into the equation the cost of auto insurance, now the cost of gas isn't my biggest concern. I pay almost $40.00 per month for auto insurance, that is twice the cost per mile as gasoline. Auto insurance should be based on the use of your auto, and the only way to do that is to place the cost of statewide insurance onto the cost of gasoline. The more you drive, the more your your insurance. This NO-FAULT INSURANCE in FLORIDA is a JOKE. If we can get rid of all of the ambulance chasers, and put a limit on all settlements the state could offer nonprofit coverage on all vehicles. There would be no shareholders, or underwriters to profit from what we call ACCIDENTS. It is a joke that there will be no fault in auto wrecks when the truth is that there is always fault. We have become so accustomed to calling them accidents, that we believe it ourselves.

[Jean]

I'm still confused about what our legislators did during the SPECIAL session regarding homeowners' insurance.
They have only made matters worse and we will all pay for the reinsurance.
Also, are we the only state that is confronted with this? What about California with earthquakes, the mid-west with tornadoes, etc.?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emA4xuyi16g