OFF BEAT: Singer rips Citizens with song posted on YouTube

A frustrated Florida folk singer took to YouTube with a new tune to protest his state-run insurance company.

Kevin Roth of Oakland Park, Fla., this week wrote and posted a song on YouTube after receiving a letter from Citizens Property Insurance Corp. saying the insurer was reducing the coverage on his home, according to news reports.

In the song, called “Citi-Sins,” Mr. Roth says the insurer is a “rip-off of the poor,” and “when it comes to state insurance, it’s screw the public need.”

Mr. Roth has performed across the country at music festivals and concerts, made television and radio appearances and also performed at the White House, according to his official website.

Citizens is a nonprofit government corporation that provides insurance coverage to hundreds of thousands Florida property owners.

In the song, Mr. Roth also criticizes Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who ordered the insurance company to downsize by reducing coverage in efforts to incentivize homeowners to seek coverage from private carriers, according to news reports.

"Gov. Scott doesn't plan to hit a recording studio on the issue anytime soon, but he and Kevin Roth have been singing a similar song (figuratively speaking)," Lane Wright, Gov. Scott’s press secretary, wrote in an email to The Palm Beach Post in response to the song. "Citizens is broken. It needs to be fixed."

Citizens also faces lawsuits filed by Florida homeowners for using a valuation system that forced policyholders to pay more in premiums, according to news reports.

According to the YouTube posting, the song will be available Feb. 21 on iTunes.