Louisiana’s current insurance reform supports big business and hurts families. Everyone agrees that Louisiana’s insurance crisis is complicated. Not enough insurers want to enter the market. Prices are sky high. Stories of people forced out of their homes are plentiful. Former Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon worked to protect families. But the sands shifted. Tim Temple, the new Insurance commissioner, works to protect insurance companies.
Climate changes are producing stronger and more frequent storms. Instead of protecting homeowners better, Temple’s agenda seeks to increase profits for insurance companies even in the face of more storms. Temple’s plan includes:
- Raising rates more often without any approval from an oversight agency
- Weakening or eliminating the three-year rule where companies can no longer drop policy holders.
- Allow big insurance companies to cherry-pick where they write policies
- Make it easier for insurers to delay and deny claims.
Three Year Rule Change
Bills like HB 611 are a direct attack on homeowners’ protections. Currently in Louisiana, insurance companies cannot drop a policy holder if they keep the policy for three years. During those three years, policy holders invested sometimes tens of thousands of dollars in premiums. Commissioner Temple favors companies just dropping the homeowner without explanation. In fact, Temple wants to let the company first raise the rates it charges to the same homeowner, then drop them.
Raise Rates
Another shameful bill proposed by a rural legislator is Senate Bill 295. This bill aims to let insurance companies raise rates without approval from any governing body. They simply send a notice to the policy holder of the upcoming rate increase and BAM, new rate. Smack dab in the middle of hurricane season. No storm predicted. Just cause the insurance company seeks a higher profit.
And don’t be fooled by the companies losing money narrative. Cause insurance companies still make billions annually. Especially the companies that operate in Louisiana. Even if you factor in more frequent storms. Companies raised their rates – more revenue. Higher interest rates bolster their bottom lines – and more revenue. And these companies received huge returns on their investments – even more revenue.
Lawsuit Reform
But the fun doesn’t stop there. Currently if you sue an insurance company and win, then your attorney’s fees are also paid by the insurance company. After they delayed, denied and depreciated your claim and you had no choice but to hire an attorney and file a lawsuit that you win, insurance companies want you to pay for your own attorney. And of course, Commissioner Temple supports this attack on homeowners.
Related: Legislators Debate Insurance Rates
Insurance reform is complicated. The system needs to work. But the current strategy only punishes homeowners and increases profits for insurance companies.
Jeff Thomas
Publisher • Opinion Columnist • Licensed General Contractor • Real Estate Appraiser • New Orleans
Jeff Thomas is the publisher of Black Source Media and one of New Orleans’ most direct voices on civic affairs, economic justice, and Louisiana politics. He writes from the intersection of experience and accountability — as a licensed general contractor,a tech company founder and executive with over 30 years experience, and a businessman who has worked across the city’s civic, media, and construction ecosystems for decades.
His Sunday column covers Louisiana legislative politics, insurance discrimination, housing policy, and the forces shaping Black community life in New Orleans and across the state. Thomas writes in the tradition of Black journalists who hold power accountable without apology — building arguments from data, delivering verdicts from evidence, and speaking to Black New Orleans with the directness the moment demands.
He is also the principal of Executive Appraisers Louisiana, an MBE-certified real estate appraisal firm, and EA Inspection Services, LLC, a government inspection services company. Black Source Media is his platform for the civic conversation New Orleans has needed and too rarely had.
Selected Articles by Jeff Thomas
Black Neighborhoods Pay the Highest Insurance Rates in Louisiana. Here’s What They Don’t Want You to Know.
They Didn’t Yell the N-Word. They Went to Law School, Bided Their Time, and Rewrote the Constitution Instead.
Vappie vs. Morrell: Why Does Justice Look Different in New Orleans?
The State Has the Money. New Orleans East Just Needs Them to Use It.
The Failure of Mitch Landrieu
Publisher — Black Source Media
Jeff Thomas
Publisher • Opinion Columnist • Licensed General Contractor • Real Estate Appraiser • New Orleans
Jeff Thomas is the publisher of Black Source Media and one of New Orleans’ most direct voices on civic affairs, economic justice, and Louisiana politics. He writes from the intersection of experience and accountability — as a licensed general contractor,a tech company founder and executive with over 30 years experience, and a businessman who has worked across the city’s civic, media, and construction ecosystems for decades.
His Sunday column covers Louisiana legislative politics, insurance discrimination, housing policy, and the forces shaping Black community life in New Orleans and across the state. Thomas writes in the tradition of Black journalists who hold power accountable without apology — building arguments from data, delivering verdicts from evidence, and speaking to Black New Orleans with the directness the moment demands.
He is also the principal of Executive Appraisers Louisiana, an MBE-certified real estate appraisal firm, and EA Inspection Services, LLC, a government inspection services company. Black Source Media is his platform for the civic conversation New Orleans has needed and too rarely had.
Selected Articles by Jeff Thomas
Black Neighborhoods Pay the Highest Insurance Rates in Louisiana. Here’s What They Don’t Want You to Know.
They Didn’t Yell the N-Word. They Went to Law School, Bided Their Time, and Rewrote the Constitution Instead.
Vappie vs. Morrell: Why Does Justice Look Different in New Orleans?
The State Has the Money. New Orleans East Just Needs Them to Use It.
The Failure of Mitch Landrieu
I liked Donalen He supported families. This guy is for business only