PENSACOLA, Fla. -- There's no relief in sight for Florida's insurance crisis. Skyrocketing premiums are forcing some small business owners to make tough choices.
WEAR News spoke with one Pensacola business owner Wednesday who says the higher costs are cutting benefits he was planning to offer his employees.
Phillip Zayas owns Emerald Republic Brewing company. He says he understands why policy prices are going up. But seeing how much his wind protection is now going to cost -- left him speechless.
When Zayas opened Emerald Republic Brewing in 2019, he paid $3,000 a year for his wind protection coverage. Fast forward to next year -- that bill -- now $23,000.
"Do you want to take this risk and be able to afford your business or get hit by a natural disaster is something that's going to come into play," Zayas said.
That jump is forcing him to make tough decisions for his employees.
"We've been fortunate enough to provide our employees dental and vision insurance, in 2024 we were planning on adding medical, but if I have to pay these rates -- there goes the budget. It would be equal to our mortgage rate," Zayas said.
In two weeks, Florida lawmakers will head back to Tallahassee for a special session to address insurance rates.
State Representative Alex Andrade told WEAR News, the session will focus more on Hurricane Idalia relief and funding the "My Safe Florida Home Program."
The program helps with hardening homes to better protect them from storms.
Andrade says other insurance issues will be addressed in the future.
"There will be bills that will work to improve property insurance overall," Andrade said. "For instance, there are condominiums that don't have access to windstorm underwriting."
Andrade says it will take time to see the benefits of any changes that are made.
"I mean property insurance is expensive but so are utility rates, so are the costs. I think the cost of chicken at Publix has gone up almost double in the past year," Andrade said. "These are things that hit people's pocketbooks and making sure the state of Florida is not contributing to that problem and doing what we can to help is something you're going to see in this session."
The special session is expected to start Nov. 6 and go through the 9.
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October 26, 2023 at 05:13AM
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Pensacola brewery owner grapples with skyrocketing insurance, threatening employee benefits - WEAR
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