04/11/2025
Since 1996, insurance companies have successfully lobbied our legislature to make it harder on Louisianans to pursue and collect insurance claims by (1) blaming the number of lawsuits, (2) assuring us that the latest proposed law is necessary to lower insurance rates, and (3) if the law is passed, new insurers will come to Louisiana creating competition that will lower prices.
Let’s look at each:
(1) Blaming the number of lawsuits. Until August of 2024, Louisiana had a 1-year statute of limitations. It was the shortest in the country- most states allow for 2 or more years before suit has to be filed. Louisiana’s short period forced lawsuits to be filed which otherwise may have settled.
Who opposed extending the time in which a suit must be filed in Louisiana? THE INSURANCE COMPANIES. Why? Their main argument supporting insurance favorable laws each year rested on blaming the number of lawsuits in Louisiana. During the 2023 session which also passed laws promising to lower car rates, Governor Landry, to his credit, supported and signed a law increasing the time to file suits to 2 years. This has reduced the number of lawsuits already and will continue to do so.
(2) Assuring the latest new law is necessary to lower insurance rates: Since 1996, the insurance lobby has promised lower rates if new laws pass to make it harder on Louisianans to pursue and collect claims. Insurance lobbyist Steve Waguespack with LABI famously promised in 2020 that if auto rates did not come down with the laws he helped pass in 2020 to make it harder on Louisianans to pursue claims, that he would march on the capitol with a “tiki torch”. Instead, auto insurance rates in 2020 rose 19% and have continued to increase since. https://louisianaradionetwork.com/.../real-reform.../
(3) If the law is passed, new insurers will come to Louisiana creating competition that will lower prices: Enter Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple. He, along with some insurance company owned legislators, now make the same old and untrue promises: Pass laws to deny, limit and make it harder for Louisianans to pursue claims and insurance rates will come down because more insurers will come to Louisiana and competition will lower rates.
A few points. First, supply and demand free market forces do not behave normally in the auto insurance marker because it is compulsory to have in order to drive. The alternatives to auto insurance are not real alternatives: walking or riding a bike. Compulsory insurance makes pricing less subject to consumer demand.
Second, Louisiana has plenty of insurers writing policies in state: State Farm, Allstate, Farm Bureau, Progressive, Geico, Shelter, Liberty Mutual, Safeco, etc. How many auto insurers do you have to have for a competitive market if competition was really the answer? There's more competition and lowering of prices between cellular phone companies and there are only 3 or 4 major companies in Louisiana. When Farmer’s Insurance returned to Louisiana in 2021, did auto rates drop? Of course not. Why? The insurance companies have no incentive to decrease their premiums because our Insurance Commissioner and legislators do not require them to fully show how premiums are calculated or show their profits in Louisiana to justify an increase.
As for Commissioner Temple, he originally campaigned as a reformer and as one who was independent of insurance companies. I believed him. However, since that time he has become entrenched as an advocate for insurance companies and not for Louisianans. Below is a link to his campaign contributions with hefty checks from insurance companies, insurance agents, and others in the claims industry that he is supposed to regulate on behalf of the families of Louisiana: https://www.dropbox.com/.../Campain-Finance-Contributions...
THE BOTTOM LINE: The Insurance Commissioner and Legislature has given and will continue to give the insurance companies every law they want and RATES WON'T EVER COME DOWN. Why? Big Insurance has no incentive to do so voluntarily because no one holds them accountable. Until Big Insurance has to fully disclose their profits in Louisiana and has to justify beforehand any premium rate increase AND the Commissioner of Insurance must refuse any insurance company contributions, the cycle of higher rates and a harder time for Louisianans to be fairly compensated for legitimate claims will continue this year, next year, and so on until we wake up.
Campain Finance Contributions.pdf
DROPBOX.COM
Campain Finance Contributions.pdf
Shared with Dropbox
Real Reform Louisiana delivered tiki torches to the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry's office in...
