When the next regular legislative session gets underway in April 2025 Lawmakers are expected to address the vexing issue of Louisiana’s insurance rates. They are among the highest in the country. Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple points to one factor in particular for the high rates. He says Louisiana motorists are more likely to claim an injury following a wreck. “We’re twice as likely to file a bodily injury claim. And there were two, almost two and a half times more likely to litigate. We gotta look at that. That’s what’s driving cost.”
Temple is referring, in part, to the data provided by the most recent bodily injury claims from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). Based on Statistics from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), Louisiana is only slightly above the national average when it comes to the frequency of car accidents. Despite that fact, the number of people who claim to be injured in the accident is almost 200% higher than other states.
Temple says multiple legislative committees have been meeting on a regular base, looking for solutions. The insurance industry has advocated for tort reform, that would put more limitations on lawsuits. But critics are leery of such steps, without knowing more about the root causes of high insurance rates.
Real Reform Louisiana is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that has been calling for insurance reform. But the group is against tort reform as some kind of panacea. Instead, its director, Ben Riggs, has called for an examination of how insurance rates are calculated. He and his organization cite new reporting from the New York Times which investigated claims that “higher [insurance] premiums are being charged in states where regulators apply less scrutiny to requests for rate increases.”
For its part, Real Reform Louisiana has been highly critical of Commissioner Temple’s efforts to deregulate the insurance market in Louisiana. Temple sees deregulation as a pathway to lower insurance premiums through a free market approach in which competition would drive down rates.
Legislative hearings on car insurance are expected to continue this month and into December. But the special legislative session on tax reform will take precedence, beginning the day after the general election, on Wednesday, November 6.
