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Russo proposes hurricane-only catastrophe coverage for Florida property insurance
The plan would offer up to $500,000 in basic dwelling coverage, raising questions on how a new layer would stack against FHCF and Citizens and how it could affect litigation reforms tied to market stabilization.
Independent gubernatorial candidate Frank J. Russo has unveiled a Florida property insurance reform proposal centered on a state-backed, hurricane-only catastrophe coverage program with up to $500,000 in basic dwelling coverage, according to Insurance Business.
The proposal focuses attention on structural issues rather than polling, including how a new hurricane-only layer would interact with existing Florida mechanisms. The Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund has a $17 billion coverage limit for 2026, Citizens Property Insurance Corporation can levy emergency assessments up to 10% of premium per account per year on most Florida P&C policyholders if it faces a post-catastrophe deficit, and the plan would need clearer decisions on attachment, sequencing, and coverage stacking.
Insurance Business also notes that the proposal would have to address how it interacts with 2022 and 2023 legislative reforms, which removed one-way attorney fee provisions and curtailed assignment of benefits claims that are credited with turning the Florida market around. A state catastrophe program that changes incentives for litigation or claim routing could complicate those gains, the outlet said.
The proposal includes a comparison to Texas, which has run a wind-only residual model since 1971 through the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association for wind and hail losses. As of end-2025, TWIA insured nearly 285,000 properties with $126.5 billion in total insured value, illustrating both the potential scale of such a program and the concentrated catastrophe exposure it can accumulate, a factor Insurance Business says is directly relevant for Florida’s larger and more geographically dispersed wind risk.