Florida Senate Passes Guns, Pro-Life, Insurance Bills

Submitted by Kevin Derby on April 28, 2011 - 12:12pm

Bills designed to shore up the insurance market, prevent doctors from asking patients about gun ownership and ban taxpayer funds for abortion procedures all passed Thursday through the Florida Senate.

SB 408 eliminates the requirements for private insurance companies to offer comprehensive sinkhole coverage. The bill passed in a 25-12 vote over the objections of senators who thought the bill was a sop for insurance companies that would unsettle an already shaky housing market.

"This is an economic disaster waiting to happen," said Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, who asserted that banks would not offer mortgages on homes that did not include sinkhole coverage.

Sen. Garrett Richter, R-Naples, himself a banker, refuted that claim, and said that shoring up the insurance market by enticing more companies to come to Florida was the best way to cover for state-run Citizens Property Insurance, which would be unable to pay out all of its claims in the event of a catastrophic hurricane.

"The most expensive policy that you can get is a policy with a company that can't pay your claim," Richter said.

Three bills dealing with gun rights also passed the upper chamber. Bills preventing doctors from asking patients about gun ownership and barring local governments from passing laws in contradiction to state gun laws will now head to Gov. Rick Scott's desk for his signature. The third, a bill decriminalizing the accidental revealing of a concealed firearm, will head to the House.

The Senate also passed two bills preventing the use of taxpayer funds for abortion. One puts the provision in state law, and the other would place a constitutional amendment before the voters preventing state privacy laws from being construed to allow for taxpayer funds to pay for abortions. Both bills allow exceptions for rape, incest or the physical well-being of the mother. The pro-life bills were amended slightly on Wednesday, and must now head back to the House before being placed on Gov. Rick Scott's desk.

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