Commissioner Tim Temple announced his legislative agenda at a press conference in Geismar, Louisiana today. Unsurprisingly, Commissioner Tim Temples's agenda largely ignores the most pressing issue before Louisiana families, the rising cost of home insurance. Instead, Commissioner Temple focused on another package of tort reform bills designed to regulate the people of Louisiana, not the insurance companies he was elected to regulate.

For decades, industry-friendly lawmakers and regulators have pushed anti-consumer legislation that guts the legal rights of the Louisiana people, making it harder for them to file claims and hold their insurers accountable. Commissioner Temple is once again taking the Louisiana people down this dead-end path instead of real insurance reforms that will lower rates and protect policyholders.

By contrast, Governor Jeff Landy endorsed legislation that prohibits the use of credit scores in rate making, increases transparency, and empowers regulators to reject rates with excessive profit factors. Additionally, legislators have filed bills that strengthen consumer protections, prohibit age discrimination in rate making, and guarantee a discount for homeowners who install a fortified roof.

In 2020, we were promised that tort reform would lower rates. Those promises proved false as our rates have skyrocketed since passage of the bills. The Bayou State is currently the most unaffordable state in the nation for insurance, with Louisianans spending roughly 10% of their income on insurance.

We cannot afford to pursue another dead-end. We need real insurance reforms that protect policyholders and lower rates.