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Florida Hearing on Citizens Insurance Rates for 2010 Postponed

August 20, 2009 

A Florida hearing into rate changes for Citizens Property Insurance Corp. for next year that had been scheduled for Aug. 25 has been postponed due to a glitch in the electronic transfer of data accompanying the rate filings.

John Kuczwanski, public information manager for the state-backed Citizens, said the technical difficulty will be fixed and the filings resubmitted with all necessary data.

He said the delay will not affect the proposed overall rate plan which, if approved, would raise about $140 million next year.

The rate filings are in keeping with recent legislation requiring Citizens to file actuarially sound rates with the Office of Insurance Regulation and lifting a freeze on Citizens rates. The public option property insurer has not had a rate increase in three years. Its new filings call for some policyholders’ rates to go up as much as 10 percent next year, while rates for others could go down.

While Citizens is recommending rates for 2010, the final decision will be up to the OIR and Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty.

OIR has not announced a new date for the hearing.