Mr. Wilt noted that the number of electoral votes from the Northeast and Southeast coastal states adds up to 242, just 28 short of victory. “This issue is not going away and will, rightly in our view, weigh on the valuation of reinsurers for some time to come,” he wrote.

“Although it still stings to think about this issue in the context of public policy and the potential for a redistribution of wealth following a mega-catastrophe, we cannot disagree with the senator's position,” he wrote.

With Florida in the lead, other states are bound to follow. “At what point will enough states be relying that the hand of the federal government will be forced and a national disaster plan will become necessary,” Mr. Wilt wrote.

As to why reinsurers became the so-called “villains” of the emergency legislative session when compared to the primary companies, Mr. Wilt noted the senator's observations that many lawmakers are insurance agents themselves and that their lobby was too well represented for them to take too much of a hit politically.

“To paraphrase the senator, they 'punted' on the issue and sent it over the board of directors at Citizens (residual market property insurer) for their deliberation,” Mr. Wilt wrote of Mr. Geller, who is also a past president of the National Conference of Insurance Legislators.

This article originally appeared in The National Underwriter P&C. For the complete article, please click here.

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