I’ve been gathering information supporting the title of this article for several weeks now. I knew the good reforms that took seven years to enact in Florida would pay off. The proof is all around us and my article was going to tell the rest of the country to take notice. It was going to tell everyone that the lawsuit reforms Florida passed three years ago were successful. Indeed we hit a homerun! We have lower rates, improved competition, for consumers, business’s, health care workers, homeowners and automobile drivers. In fact, it’s obvious to everyone except trial lawyers, public adjusters and shady buildback contractors–who labeled the reforms as insurer bailouts and a sellout by lawmakers. Not so!

Read Kyle Ulrich’s article “Florida’s Lesson for the Nation” and spread it amongst your email lists so those in other states can learn what Florida has done and what what they can do to get the same results. TORT REFORM WORKS!

The Right Way to Lower Insurance Costs: Florida’s Lesson for the Nation

By Kyle Ulrich, President & CEO Florida Association of Insurance Agents

When Florida lawmakers enacted sweeping tort and insurance reforms in 2022 and 2023, their goal was to repair a system that had become one of the most expensive and litigious in the nation. Critics said the changes might help stabilize the homeowners market but questioned whether policyholders would benefit in the form of lower premiums. Almost three years later, the evidence is clear: Florida’s reforms are working, not just for property insurance, but across every major line of coverage.

The transformation didn’t happen by capping prices or imposing political controls over rates. Instead, Florida chose to tackle the root causes of rising premiums: runaway litigation. While states like Illinois, Louisiana, and Michigan are now flirting with price caps and political rate-setting, Florida charted a different course, focusing on cost control, competition, and reforming the legal environment that had allowed lawsuit abuse and inflated claims to flourish. That decision is paying off, and the results are beginning to show up in consumers’ wallets.

A recent Wall Street Journal article, “Runaway Insurance Costs Bring Back Talk of Price Caps,” highlighted how lawmakers across the country are under pressure to limit insurance rate increases as premiums for home and auto coverage soar. In Illinois, officials are seeking the power to veto insurer rate hikes. Louisiana just gave its regulator new authority to strike down what it deems “excessive” premiums. Michigan legislators are pushing for an across-the-board 10 percent cut in auto rates. And in California, decades of strict rate caps have backfired, driving major carriers out of the state and leaving regulators approving double-digit hikes to lure companies back. The California insurance commissioner recently admitted, “We can’t just talk about affordability without first addressing availability. You can’t afford what doesn’t exist.”

Florida’s policymakers recognized that artificially suppressing prices doesn’t make insurance affordable; it just drives insurers away. Florida’s 2022 and 2023 reforms tackled the structural cost drivers that were inflating claims and destabilizing the market. The Legislature shortened the statute of limitations for negligence claims, strengthened bad-faith standards, eliminated one-way attorney fees, curtailed assignment-of-benefits abuse, and reformed how medical damages are calculated in court. These reforms were designed to restore fairness, reduce frivolous lawsuits, and bring transparency and predictability to claims handling.

The results have been remarkable. Auto insurance, once one of Florida’s most troubled lines, is now leading the recovery. The state’s top five auto insurers, representing nearly 80 percent of the market, have filed average rate decreases of 6.5 percent for 2025, reversing years of double-digit increases. In October, Progressive announced it would return nearly $1 billion in credits to Florida drivers, directly citing the state’s 2023 tort reforms for lowering loss costs and improving profitability. Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky described the refunds as a clear sign that Florida’s market is stabilizing, with strong underwriting gains reflecting fewer inflated claims and reduced litigation.

The same pattern is visible in homeowners insurance. Since the reforms, seventeen new insurers have entered the market, bringing over half a billion dollars in new capital. Thirty-three companies have filed for rate decreases this year, and dozens more have requested no change. According to the Office of Insurance Regulation, Florida’s average homeowners rate increase in 2024 was just one percent—the lowest in the country, while thirty-three other states saw double-digit hikes. Property insurance litigation has fallen by roughly twenty-five percent compared to last year. Citizens Property Insurance Corporation has reduced its exposure by over $300 billion and will likely close out 2025 with less than 500,000 policies in force as private carriers reenter the market. Even reinsurance, one of the most significant cost drivers in property coverage, is trending downward, with risk-adjusted costs declining for two consecutive years.

The benefits of these historic reforms reach far beyond property and auto. In commercial property, commercial residential, and workers’ compensation, claim severity and litigation frequency are stabilizing. Florida’s workers’ comp system, long a national model, continues to see rate reductions, with NCCI recommending another cut for 2026 based on favorable loss experience and declining legal expenses. For business owners, property managers, and contractors, the new legal framework means fewer unpredictable judgments and a clearer view of risks, both critical for long-term investment and growth.

The difference between Florida’s results and the national picture could not be more striking. While other states are reacting to consumer frustration with heavy-handed political measures, Florida’s policymakers chose to fix the incentives that made coverage unaffordable in the first place. As the Wall Street Journal pointed out, “price controls don’t lead to affordability, they chase insurers out of the market.” Florida’s data now tells the opposite story: lower costs, lower rates, fewer lawsuits, and more competition.

Three years after reform, Florida’s approach is being validated in every metric that matters. Litigation is down. Rates are falling. Competition is returning. Consumers, the very people the system is meant to serve, are seeing the benefits. While other states are tightening political control over prices, Florida’s leaders are showing that the path to true affordability doesn’t lie in over-regulating premiums but in reforming the legal system itself.

The outcome speaks for itself: Florida fixed the problem at its source, and everyone is better for it.

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