The insurance buying citizens of Florida are safe.  They have a consumer advocate.

This is essential because the Governor, the Chief Financial Officer, the Insurance Commissioner and the entire Division of Financial Services (which includes an enormous legal and investigative division full of sharp-toothed lawyers and armed investigators) plus the Florida House and Senate, overflowing with opportunistic politicos all looking for insurance industry targets to lambaste, were apparently insufficient — even though every one of them would quickly claim the label of consumer advocate.

Yet besides the pandering redundancy represented by the addition of one more individual and staff, advocating for the almighty consumer, there is a larger issue.

Tom Gallagher once admitted to me that consumers were a special interest group. He was right. What is ironic is that this special interest group has an advocate appointed and funded by taxpayer dollars and we’ve all come to feel that it’s just fine.

Does balanced insurance regulation mean that government, funded by all of the taxpayers and pledged to serve all the taxpayers, should come out as an advocate for one special interest group against another?

To be sure, the industry has its advocates. The Florida Insurance Council is a good example. So are the lobbyists and spokespersons from the FAIA or the PIA or the AIA. But the industry, surely a special interest group also, cannot call on taxpayer dollars and resources to lobby and advocate their positions.

It’s unfair, it’s unjust — but it’s terribly fashionable.

Newly installed Florida Gov. Charlie Crist revealed his special interest group preference recently when he said, “The insurance industry and lobby are relentless in their pursuit of higher rates. And I think that it’s just as important for those of us who serve the people of this state to be relentless as well.”

Now here’s what I get out of that little ditty: First, the Governor has no problem making his anti-industry, pro-consumer bias public. He doesn’t have to be embarrassed. He doesn’t have to say it behind closed doors. He can shout it from the rooftops! Because it’s fashionable and clever and acceptable to be a consumer advocate.

Second, Governor Crist feels that the “people of this state” obviously do not include anyone with a vested interest in the insurance industry. That’s right - if you work for or invest in the insurance industry — you are not included in those people that Charlie Crist plans to serve. Because you are, apparently, a person or company who wants only to relentlessly raise rates...

Yet this cock-eyed conflict of interest goes almost entirely unnoticed, so deeply is it embedded in the political fabric. It’s as if those in the industry have accepted the notion that it’s OK when their personal and corporate taxes are appropriated to fund an entire staff who’s sole function is to lobby against them. The insurance industry, with it's perpetual guilt-complex,  seems to offer a free pass on this nonsense.

Of course it’s all about votes. There are many more insurance buyers than insurance sellers.  Fairness be damned when there are votes to be had.

And we have nothing against advocates for consumers or any other special interest group - as long as they are not funded with taxpayer money.

— Editor