The high cost of insurance is a constant cause for concern among Floridians. Voters aren’t sure who deserves the most blame, but many identify Gov. Ron DeSantis as the top culprit.
A Florida Atlantic University poll released Wednesday found 34% of voters said they hold DeSantis, governor since January 2017, responsible for the high cost of insurance in Florida.
In addition:
- 27% blamed insurance companies.
- 26% said they hold President Joe Biden and/or the federal government most responsible.
- 13% said they didn’t know.
The survey didn’t specify if people responding to the question were thinking about windstorm insurance for their homes, the cost of which has been soaring to levels that some people can’t afford it; automobile insurance, which has been rising nationwide as parts costs have increased and more cars have expensive-to-repair technology; or a combination of the two.
The biggest differences in who gets blamed showed up in voters’ partisan affiliations.
Among Democrats, 54% held DeSantis responsible for the high cost of insurance. Just 15% of Republicans blamed DeSantis.
“Biden/federal government” was cited by 44% of Republicans and just 13% of Democrats.
Insurance companies were seen as most responsible by 31% of Republicans and 20% of Democrats.
Among independents, 35% blamed DeSantis, 30% insurance companies, and 16% Biden/federal government.
Voters aged 50 and older were more likely to blame DeSantis than younger voters. Women were slightly more likely than men to blame DeSantis.
The Democratic-Republican divide on responsibility for high insurance costs is one more indication of “just how much of everything we see through a partisan lens these days,” said Kevin Wagner, an FAU political scientist.
For many voters, he said, if something good happens they credit their side. If something bad happens, they see it as the other side’s fault.
Wagner is also co-director of FAU’s PolCom Lab, a collaboration of the School of Communication and Multimedia Studies and Department of Political Science, which conducted the poll.
Hurricane preparedness
Almost half of Florida voters don’t start preparing for hurricanes until a storm is on the way, pollsters found. A small share doesn’t ever prepare at all.
Slightly more than half (52%) of the voters surveyed this month by Florida Atlantic University said they start preparing before the beginning of hurricane season.
Others wait to start preparing:
- 27% said they start when a storm is announced.
- 8% said they start when they’re in the cone of a hurricane. (The National Hurricane Center, which produces graphics for storms, describes the cone as the probable track of the center of a tropical cyclone.)
- 7% said they start when hurricane conditions are imminent.
- 7% responded, “I don’t prepare.”
Voters 50 and older (59%) were much more likely to prepare before the beginning of hurricane season than younger voters (42%). Wagner suggested that might be because their “lived experience” has given them more exposure to storms.
Democrats were somewhat more likely to prepare before the beginning of hurricane season than independents or Republicans.
The same share of men and women, 52%, said they prepare before the beginning of the season on June 1.
Among those who don’t prepare, gender stood out.
Just 4% of women said they don’t prepare. Among men, 10% said they don’t prepare.
Fine print
The poll of 878 Florida adults was conducted June 8 and 9 by Mainstreet Research for Florida Atlantic University’s PolCom Lab.
The survey used an online panel and automated phone calls to reach other voters. It has a margin of error equivalent to plus or minus 3 percentage points.
However, the margin of error for smaller groups, such as Republicans or Democrats, or men and women, would be higher because the sample sizes are smaller.
Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Mastodon.