Although homeowners won't see any immediate rate relief, lawmakers hailed the bill's increased consumer protections, such as more notice on cancellations and the ability to sue an insurer if the company doesn't pay an undisputed claim within 90 days.
''What I saw so far looks good,'' said Gov. Charlie Crist, who is expected to sign the bill.
Rates for Citizens Property Insurance, the state-run insurer, will remain at current levels until Jan. 1, 2010, extending the current freeze by a year. That's a boon for the more than half a million South Florida homeowners covered by Citizens.
''Now I'm assured that rates won't increase for another year, especially with the economy the way it is,'' said Andrea Thompson, who lives in Miami-Dade but owns a second home in Palm Beach County that's insured by Citizens.
If legislators don't address the issue next year, these same policyholders could face steep increases when the freeze is lifted in two years and Citizens is required to pump up its reserves.
As for policyholders of private insurance companies, Sen. Jeff Atwater, a North Palm Beach Republican who helped draft the bill, said he can understand the desire for an immediate rate reduction. But he was driven by a need to make insurers more accountable.
''I've collected close to 500 to 600 stories, from our website, as to what people have been going through and not getting their claims paid. That's what I reacted to,'' he said.
One positive affects all policyholders: If Citizens runs out of money to pay claims after a major storm, assessments will be about 50 percent lower than they could have been.
The bill, passed by the Senate Thursday afternoon after the House of Representatives approved it around midnight Wednesday, is the product of two weeks of negotiations that intensified in the last three days.
Overall, it's a bill that the insurance industry doesn't like.
`WRONG DIRECTION'
''It's anti-competitive,'' said Mark Delegal, a Tallahassee lobbyist for State Farm. The increased regulation and higher fines ''are going in the wrong direction'' if Florida wants to attract more insurance companies to do business here, he said.
Insurers will be required to post claims-paying practices online if they are the subject of a market conduct exam. Also, a ban on insurers raising rates and then filing for approval was extended for another year.
Sen. Steven Geller said that provision alone could help ameliorate rate increases for some consumers.
Geller, a Cooper City Democrat, and Atwater headed hearings earlier in the year that grilled insurance companies on many of their practices. Some of the provisions in the bill came out of these hearings.
In the end, consumer protections and changes for Citizens dominate the legislation.
''We passed a strong pro-consumer bill. The Democrats all voted for it,'' said Rep. Adam Hasner, R-Delray Beach, referring to the 117-to-0 vote in the House. The vote in the Senate was 33-to-5. Lawmakers acknowledged they will be back next year with additional fixes for this bill and the state's insurance code.
Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Lakeland, who helped craft the House bill, said measures such as extending the Citizens rate freeze and allowing the company to keep writing coverage for highly valued homes are bad public policy. But he realized they were needed, at least temporarily, to encourage the return of a viable market.
''This is akin to someone who has been addicted to drugs and now must go through a methadone program. You can't go cold turkey,'' Ross said.
One provision taken out of the bill would have limited Citizens rate increases after the freeze ends. Senate and House Democrats wanted to hold increases to an average of 10 percent in each of the three years after the freeze is lifted.
The revised bill will require Citizens to file actuarially sound rates. That means rates should be set high enough for Citizens to take in enough money to cover future claims -- portending possible significant increases for Citizens policyholders.
DROPPING RATES
In the meantime, consumers may find relief without lawmakers' help.
Insurance agents have seen some carriers drop their rates and write more policies -- although these are mostly home-grown companies and not national players such as State Farm, Allstate and Nationwide.
Gaby Dominguez, who heads Avante Insurance in West Miami-Dade, said two customers she recently switched to a new carrier asked ''if this was some kind of Mickey Mouse company'' because premiums dropped by nearly 50 percent.
''We're switching clients mid-term,'' she added. ``We're not waiting for renewals.''
