New LA Law - Insurance Companies Can Cancel Up To 5% Of Their Long-Time Home Insurance Policies Each Year

[hatrack]

Taste the freedom, Louisiana!!!

Louisiana homeowners will no longer have the assurance of holding onto their longtime property insurance policies after a damaging storm. And they could start seeing increases in premiums and deductibles since the state’s insurance commissioner convinced lawmakers to deregulate Louisiana’s insurance industry.

In the past, most Louisianans who purchased homeowners’ insurance could not be denied coverage, face larger deductibles or be burdened with repeated rate increases if their policies had been in effect for more than three years — a law that was unique to the state. Starting next year, insurers are allowed to cancel up to 5% of their three-year rule policies each year in Louisiana, a state that has been hit repeatedly by devastating hurricanes.

These changes — approved by the Legislature and signed by GOP Gov. Jeff Landry — come at a time when households in many parts of the country are grappling with escalating property insurance premiums attributed to increased damage from climate-fueled storms and wildfires. Consumer advocates say lawmakers have allowed the insurance industry to use the threats posed by climate change to make it harder for policyholders to get their claims paid when they need them most. The law changes also insulate the powerful insurance lobby, which could be an influential voice in demanding change to limit greenhouse gas emissions that fuel climate change.

EDIT

A survey published last year by Louisiana State University’s Reilly Center for Media & Public Affairs reported that 17% of Louisiana homeowners’ insurance customers surveyed said their policies were canceled; 63% had premium increases between 2022 and 2023. And under the new changes in Louisiana, insurers can enact rate increases whenever they want, unless Temple, the insurance commissioner, rejects them within a 30-day review period. John Ford, deputy commissioner for Louisiana’s Department of Insurance, said Temple can still deny rate increases for any reasons allowed under the previous system within that 30-day window. Ford said the goal is to make insurance available, affordable and accountable by setting clear expectations and working with insurers to make sure policyholders are treated fairly.

EDIT

https://floodlightnews.org/louisianas-business-friendly-climate-response/

[MichMan]

1. What is the reason the previous Louisiana law wasn't ever adopted in the other 49 states?

These changes — approved by the Legislature and signed by GOP Gov. Jeff Landry — come at a time when households in many parts of the country are grappling with escalating property insurance premiums attributed to increased damage from climate-fueled storms and wildfires.

Nearly 125,000 homeowners have been forced to take policies through Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, the state’s insurer of last resort, since there are so few options in the private sector. It's a huge increase since 2020, when the program had 34,373 policyholders.

But state-sponsored insurance doesn’t mean cheaper rates. Citizens is mandated to write policies that are at least 10% above the highest rates within each parish. State lawmakers suspended that 10% surcharge for the next three years for the vast majority of the state’s population, which is south of Interstate 10 on or near the Gulf Coast.

Temple said it won’t provide much relief given how unaffordable the state-backed policies already are. And Louisiana officials have been actively moving homeowners into private policies since 2008 to “depopulate” the state program.

“We need to get people out of Citizens, and the only way to do that is to have a competitive market,” Temple said. “The changes we made this session on the three-year rule and the claims process are major parts of a larger reform effort that is putting us on a path toward that competitive market.”

[MichMan]

2. Insurance costs are going up all over the country

California rates shoot up

Last year, Jamie Lafollette, a 35-year-old from Santa Cruz, California received the upsetting news that State Farm was not renewing the policy she and her husband had on their home for the previous 10 years. They had never made a claim.

Aware their community had been deemed a high risk for wildfires, Lafollette said she and her neighbors spent thousands of dollars fortifying their homes with concrete siding, fire-resistant roofs and creating buffer zones around their properties. But none of that seemed to matter when it came time for her to buy a new insurance policy.

Lafollette had been paying about $2,000 a year to insure their home. When she sought a new estimate, she was confronted with annual insurance rates of more than $20,000 a year.

Lafollete said since that eye-popping quote, the cheapest rate she’s seen so far was through the state-sponsored FAIR Plan at nearly $9,000 a year. Even that is too expensive, said Lafollette, who works for a nonprofit and whose husband is a disabled combat veteran.

[duncang]

3. Here in Texas.

My last provider dropped me and I ended up having to go with a last chance provider. Even though I’m over a 100 miles from the coast. Also I’m well above any flood zone. My main problem is I have large trees within fall distance from the house.