Citizens customers face rate hike - San Francisco Business Times:

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While most of the insurer’s more than 1 million customer s will see ratesgo up, some will see them go down as a resultg of Wednesday’s action, Citizens spokesma n John Kuczwanski said. The vote ends a three-year rate freezed that was put into effectin 2007, when the Florida Legislaturde froze rates through the end of 2009. However, during the last legislative session, lawmakers decided to allow Citizens to raise its rates by up to 10 percentg to help bolster theundercapitalized insurer, at the same time, protect consumera from skyrocketing premiums. Without the cap, policyholders would have seen rateasnearly double.
However, lawmakers did not address the question oflowering rates. That became an issuwe of contentionat Wednesday’s meeting, and board membersa agreed to allow for a decrease in premiums of up to 10 if warranted. “There was some discussio n about how toaddress that, taking into consideratio the need for Citizens to become a more financiallyh stable entity,” Kuczwanski said. The next step is for the recommendes new rate structure to be presenter tothe , which can approve or adjust the Because it’s a state-run agency, Citizenzs would not have the right to Kuczwanski said.