Florida
Citizens chooses higher rate hikes for South Florida than its own numbers indicate
The cost to keep state-owned Citizens Property Insurance Corp. as your insurer will rise by 14% in 2025 if state insurance regulators agree with rate hikes approved on Wednesday by the company’s Board of Governors.
In South Florida, the rate hikes for single-family homeowners could have been much lower if the company hadn’t applied an analysis that aims to make the company “non-competitive” with private market insurers.
In its quest to reduce the number of policyholders from the current 1.2 million, Citizens approved the 14% maximum rate increase allowed by state law during a hearing that lasted less than 30 minutes.
If next approved by state insurance regulators, the 14% rate hike would affect the company’s personal lines business, which consists of single-family homes, private condominium units, mobile homes and rentals. The rate includes multiperil policies with wind coverage and wind-only coverage for those categories.
It’s the highest rate hike allowed by a law enacted in 2021 that increased the maximum annual rate increase from 10% that year to 15% in 2026.
The company is recommending raising the premium it charges for multiperil coverage of 71,196 single-family homes in Broward County by an average of 13.5% — from an average $5,385 to $6,112.
In Palm Beach County, 61,357 homeowners would see comparable coverage hiked by an average of 13.4% — from $4,904 to $5,561.
The 96,941 single-family homeowners covered by Citizens in Miami-Dade County would also see an average 13.5% increase from $5,113 to $5,804.
Condominium rates would increase by 14.3% in Broward County, 14.5% in Palm Beach County and 14.2% in Miami-Dade County.
Responding to a South Florida Sun Sentinel story outlining the proposed rate increases, Luz Green, a Florida Atlantic University student, noted that the increase could help quash her dream of owning her own home someday.
In an email, Green noted the $657 average increase for a Citizens policy in Palm Beach County.
“I may not be a mathematician, but I am unable to ascertain how someone would be able to increase their payment amounts without an increase in pay,” Green wrote. “I find it especially difficult to defend this increase when there is no change in coverage. There is no added protection, no new features, no incentives; the same policy just with higher rates.”
No one at the Board of Governors meeting argued for a lower increase. But several praised improved financial results made possible by legislative reforms that make it harder for homeowners to sue insurers when they believe their claims are denied or undervalued.
For owners of single-family houses in South Florida, the rate hikes would have been much lower if the board had relied on what’s called the “actuarial” indicated rate.
In insurance terms, actuarial rates are what companies need to cover expected losses. For years, Citizens has approved rates that were much lower than indicated actuarial rates.
This year is no different, although indicated actuarial rate increases have fallen sharply — from 55.1% statewide for personal multiperil and wind-only coverage in 2024 to 25.2% in 2025 — thanks to the decline in litigation that followed passage of reforms in 2022.
The reforms have ushered in what Citizens actuary Brian Donovan called “a dramatic improvement” in the company’s financial picture. The company posted a $746.5 million net profit last year after losing $2.24 billion the year before, S&P Global reported in March.
But in South Florida, the decline in litigation drove the indicated actuarial rate hikes well below the hikes of close to 14% that were approved for Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties, according to an analysis presented during the hearing.
The indicated actuarial rate hike for multiperil home policies in Broward County is 0.8%. Palm Beach County rates would increase by 9.8% if the indicated actuarial rate hike was adopted. And the indicated actuarial rate projection calls for rates in Miami-Dade to decline by 4%.
A big reason is that rates have previously been allowed to swell in the tricounty region to cover estimated losses from litigation for non-catastrophe losses prior to the reforms.
In 2015, lawsuits were filed for 56% of all non-catastrophe claims filed in South Florida. By the end of 2023, that number had fallen to 16%, according to data shown during the meeting.
But the company’s actuaries, under a mandate to reduce policy counts, justified the flat 14% hike for multiperil coverage of 225,453 single-family houses in South Florida with an analysis that found that Citizens’ rates remain “competitive” with private-market insurers.
Actuaries who developed the analysis decided that “non-competitive” status would be achieved when Citizens’ rates are higher than seven of 10 private-market insurers. That’s not the case, according to the analysis.
This is the first year such an analysis was used in the company’s rate setting, a Citizens spokesman said after the meeting.
State law requires Citizens’ rates to be “non-competitive” with private market rates to prevent the company from attaining too large of a market share and to encourage private-market growth.
According to the analysis, rates would have to climb 96.6% statewide to be non-competitive. They would have to climb 74.1% in Broward County, 80.5% in Palm Beach County, and 82.6% in Palm Beach County.
Yet the analysis did not factor in rate declines announced in recent months by several private market insurers.
And in public remarks in Marathon on Wednesday morning, Gov. Ron DeSantis noted that “a chunk of people on Citizens” have actually found lower rates with private market companies.
Citizens has grown significantly over the past five years, increasing from about 420,000 policies in 2019 to about 1.2 million today. That growth has triggered concerns that all insurance customers in Florida could face assessments and surcharges if the company cannot pay all claims after a catastrophe.
The Office of Insurance Regulation must approve Citizens’ rate hike requests following a public hearing to be scheduled in the near future.
In recent years, the office has approved lower increases than Citizens and its board have sought.
Ron Hurtibise covers business and consumer issues for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He can be reached by phone at 954-356-4071, on Twitter @ronhurtibise or by email at rhurtibise@sunsentinel.com.
Florida
GALLERY: Barrett-Jackson ‘Super Saturday’ takes over South Florida Fairgrounds
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) — The engines are revving for one final day of high-stakes bidding and family fun at the South Florida Fairgrounds.
Barrett-Jackson’s Palm Beach auction reaches its grand finale today with an action-packed “Super Saturday” lineup, promising to close out the weekend with a full slate of collector car sales, live entertainment, and fan attractions.
“Super Saturday,” presented by Seminole Casino Coconut Creek, officially kicks off at 8 a.m. when gates, food courts, and the exhibitor marketplace open to the public.
What to expect
- 8:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.: The Fantasy Bid presented by Dodge begins early, running in tandem with the automobilia auction in the arena.
- 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.: Thrill-seekers can catch Dodge thrill rides on the Barrett-Jackson Performance Track.
- 10:00 a.m.: New amenities open to the public, including the Stella Artois, Staging Lanes, and Food Court patios, which offer shaded seating and auction views.
- 10:45 a.m.: The national anthem will be performed in the auction arena, signaling the start of the main collector car auction at 11 a.m.
- Afternoon Entertainment: DJ sets run from noon to 5 p.m. across the various patios, and a detailing clinic by Adam’s Polishes is scheduled for 2 p.m. near the South Showcase.
For those unable to attend, the whole event will be livestreamed throughout the day on the Barrett-Jackson website and the HISTORY channel from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Today’s finale comes on the heels of a high-energy Friday that saw significant sales and notable celebrity interest.
Star power was evident throughout the day, particularly with vehicles tied to the Busch family. A 1957 Ford Thunderbird Convertible owned by Samantha Busch and a 1969 Oldsmobile 442 Custom Coupe were among the day’s heavy hitters, each fetching $159,500. Kyle Busch’s 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air Custom Coupe also drew a strong bid, selling for $143,000.
Other Friday highlights included:
- 1968 Ford Mustang Eleanor Replica: $137,500
- 2004 Dodge Viper SRT-10 Mamba Edition: $132,000
- 1972 Chevrolet K5 Blazer Custom SUV: $126,500
- 1957 Ford Thunderbird Custom Convertible: $121,000
BE THE FIRST TO COMMENT
With a festival-style atmosphere and high-profile sales driving momentum, organizers expect a busy crowd for the final push at the auction block today.
Florida
Bodycam captures life-saving rescue of choking baby by Florida deputies
ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. (CBS12) — A quiet Monday turned into a frantic race against time when a deputy stepped in to save a choking 1-year-old’s life.
According to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, deputies responded to a call about a 1-year-old baby choking. Upon arrival, the responding deputy performed life-saving procedures to help the child breathe again.
See also: Two arrested after 6-year-old arrives at Florida school with bruises, deputies say
Body camera video shows a deputy holding the baby, flipping it over on its stomach, and beginning to pat the baby’s back.
BE THE FIRST TO COMMENT
When the baby begins to cry, the deputy is heard saying, “he’s good.”
Florida
Son of 2nd patient who died after seeing Florida surgeon describes family’s heartbreak: ‘It’s just not right’
Weyman Dorsett knew something went wrong with his mom’s surgery as he watched an ICU doctor review her medical charts.
“I’ll never forget and it’ll never leave my mind, the look on that doctor’s face as he was reading through the files,” Dorsett, 53, said. “… He was just shaking his head, like: ‘what in the living hell is going on?’”
His mother, 70-year-old Dorothy Dorsett, was in recovery after a surgeon removed a tumor from her digestive tract. But she was hardly eating and had an abnormally fast heartbeat, according to a lawsuit Dorsett later filed. She was moved to the ICU nearly a week after the surgery.
“She just started really spiraling, pain,” Dorsett said. “She was not my mom.”
She died days later, on Aug. 4, 2023.
About a year later, another patient, William Bryan, 70, died after the same surgeon operated on him.
The surgeon, Thomas Shaknovsky was arrested this week, accused of accidentally removing Bryan’s liver instead of his spleen, prosecutors said. Shaknovsky operated on both Dorothy Dorsett and Bryan at Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast in Miramar Beach.
Shaknovsky and his lawyer could not be immediately reached for comment. However, he has denied wrongdoing in Dorothy Dorsett’s case in court filings of his own, arguing that some of the allegations were inaccurate and that descriptions of Dorsett’s care were incomplete. The lawsuit remains ongoing.
Do you have a story to share? Email reporter matthew.lavietes@nbcuni.com or reach us at our tip line.
The hospital did not immediately return a request for comment. Earlier this week, Macdonald Walker, a spokesperson for Ascension Sacred Heart, said in a statement that Shaknovsky “was never a Sacred Heart Emerald Coast employee and has not practiced at any of our facilities since August 2024.”
Weyman Dorsett filed a lawsuit against Shaknovsky and Ascension Sacred Heart last year, accusing the doctor and hospital of negligence. He spoke out for the first time since his mother died in an interview with NBC News on Thursday.
“I’ve got two boys, a wife, now a grandbaby, and you know, I’m trying to be there for them, but, man, I’ve struggled mentally in dealing with it,” he said. “It’s just not right.”
On July 24, 2023, Dorothy Dorsett was admitted to the hospital after suffering abdominal pain, Weyman Dorsett, said. At the time, he said his mom was “in great health.”
“She was going non-stop. She lived on her own, drove everywhere, she went all over,” he said. “Prior to the surgery, she flew to my oldest son’s wedding in Bentonville, Arkansas, with a broken leg from a car wreck.”
At the hospital, his mom was diagnosed with gastrointestinal bleeding and acute blood loss anemia, according to the civil complaint.
The next day, the Dorsett family met Shaknovsky, whom Weyman Dorsett described as “odd.” He said the doctor prayed by his mom’s bedside before the surgery.
“It was way over the top,” Weyman Dorsett said. “It was very insincere to me.”
He said his mother thought Shaknovsky was “very weird.”
That day, Shaknovsky performed a colonoscopy and found a tumor in Dorothy Dorsett’s digestive tract, which he removed on July 27, 2023, according to the complaint.
During the surgery following the colonoscopy, Shaknovsky did not perform a routine test, which would have ensured there were no leaks in a newly joined intestine, according to the complaint.
Shaknovsky told the family that the surgery “went great,” Weyman Dorsett said, but his mother’s condition immediately started to deteriorate.
He said that his mom was moved to the ICU on Aug. 2, 2023.
Weyman Dorsett left that night, but his mother called him to come back to the hospital at midnight, saying she was going to die.
“My mom looked at me and just said, ‘It is what it is. I’ve lived a good life,’” he said. “And I had to sit there and watch her die.”
On Aug. 3, 2023, a doctor on call, Dr. Chun W. Chen, documented Dorothy Dorsett’s condition, according to the complaint, noting that he saw “more air than I would expect postsurgical” and mentioning concern “for bowel perforation specifically around the chain sutures in the pelvis.”
Chen added in the report that pockets of air had formed around Dorothy’s pelvis, according to the complaint.
“Although this may be postsurgical, cannot exclude bowel perforation,” he wrote.
Chen said in a brief phone call that he didn’t remember the patient and declined to comment further.
That evening, Shaknovsky documented in a daily progress note the air and fluid collection in Dorothy’s pelvis, according to the complaint.
Shaknovsky did not advise surgical intervention due to Dorothy’s declining organ function and risks associated with anesthesia, the complaint says.
Dorothy Dorsett was pronounced dead at 5:29 a.m. on August 4, 2023, according to the complaint. She passed away surrounded by family, the complaint says.
“Until you go through it yourself, and to be there with my mom and watch her suffer, and to be there when she takes her last breath has been devastating,” Weyman Dorsett said. “I suffer every day. It’s a haunting memory that I can’t erase out of my mind.”
Allegations of another botched surgery
On Aug. 21, 2024, prosecutors allege that Shaknovsky accidentally removed William Bryan’s liver instead of his spleen during what was scheduled to be a laparoscopic splenectomy.
Shaknovsky, who had been licensed to practice medicine in several states, had his Florida license suspended about a month after Bryan’s death. Later that year, he voluntarily surrendered his license to practice in Alabama. New York then suspended his license in 2025.
Bryan’s widow, Beverly Bryan, filed a civil lawsuit against Shaknovsky in 2025, accusing the surgeon of causing her husband’s death.
After the suit was filed, Weyman Dorsett learned that the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration completed an investigation into his mom’s death in September 2024, after Bryan’s botched surgery and more than a year after Dorothy’s death.
The investigation found that Shaknovsky and other hospital physicians “failed to appropriately use diagnostic testing and delayed in ordering imaging to timely treat sepsis” in Dorothy Dorsett’s case, according to a copy of the report.
The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration did not return a request for comment.
Shaknovsky was indicted by a grand jury on a charge of second-degree manslaughter in the death of Bryan, according to officials.
“It’s bittersweet,” Weyman Dorsett said. “You know, nothing’s going to bring back Mr. Bryan, or my mom and all the other people that are still out there that have been butchered and suffered.”
Dorothy Dorsett grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, where she and her husband, Weyman Dorsett II, her high school sweetheart, raised their two children: Weyman Dorsett III and his sister.
“She just was everything you would think the American dream mom would be,” he said. “She led by example, best cook in the world. She was our rock.”
She and her husband moved back and forth from Alabama to Miramar Beach, Florida, about 30 miles west of Panama City. She moved to Miramar Beach permanently following the death of Weyman Dorsett II in 2021.
Weyman Dorsett III described his mother’s passing as a “big piece missing.”
-
Missouri6 minutes ago
Missouri Lottery Powerball, Pick 3 winning numbers for April 18, 2026
-
Montana12 minutes ago
Montana Lottery Powerball, Lotto America results for April 18, 2026
-
Nebraska18 minutes agoGallery: Huskers Run-Rule No. 12 USC to Take Series
-
Nevada24 minutes agoIN RESPONSE: Cortez Masto lands bill would keep the proceeds in Nevada
-
New Hampshire30 minutes agoNew Hampshire grapples with nuclear waste storage – Valley News
-
New Jersey36 minutes agoNearby shooting interrupts 13-year-old’s birthday party in Paterson; 1 killed, 3 injured
-
New Mexico42 minutes agoCalm and warmer conditions move into New Mexico
-
North Carolina48 minutes agoMemorial service held for former Miss North Carolina Carrie Everett