Gov. Jeff Landry unveiled his legislative agenda Wednesday to target Louisiana’s high automobile insurance rates, leaning on some familiar issues that lawmakers have considered in previous years.
The governor summarized a vast legislative agenda that includes proposals to curtail lawyer advertising, limit the damages that can be recovered in personal-injury cases and bring transparency to the way car insurance companies set their premium rates.
Lawmakers have tried numerous times to address the auto insurance crisis, passing legislation based on the testimony of researchers, insurance industry representatives, truck drivers, business owners, lawyers and others. Most of that legislation has taken aim at a legal environment in Louisiana that critics say makes it easy to file bodily injury lawsuits for quick monetary settlements that aren’t always warranted.
At a State Capitol news conference Wednesday, Landry sought to distance his effort from that previous approach.
“We passed dozens of bills that we were told were going to lead to lower rates … yet we stand here today seeing very little improvement,” the governor said.
Landry described his agenda as a “balanced” approach that would regulate both sides of a long-running debate that has pitted insurance companies against the trial lawyers who often sue them.
One proposal with the potential to spur significant changes has to do with the rate algorithms insurers use to determine how much to charge a particular driver for coverage.
Landry wants to reveal the different variables that go into these calculations and how they’re weighted. Currently, insurance companies get to hide their rate formulas by labeling them “proprietary,” which treats them as trade secrets and prevents consumers and regulators from knowing how the rates are calculated. It has essentially created a guessing game in which drivers and lawmakers can never truly know which factors cause premium spikes.
I’m just as tired of seeing Morris Bart as I am of seeing the lizard.- Gov. Jeff Landry
Landry said it’s time to “demand transparency” from insurers, but he did not say whether that window should be opened to the general public. The state insurance commissioner should at least be able to see the rate algorithm, the governor said.
The commissioner should also have the authority to prohibit any rates deemed “excessive,” Landry added, noting that peers in other states do. In Louisiana, the insurance commissioner reviews auto rates to ensure insurers are in compliance with certain general rules, but he can’t force companies to lower premiums solely because they’re considered too high.
Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple, who did not attend the governor’s press conference, is holding a separate conference Thursday morning to unveil his own legislative priorities. His absence has raised questions about whether the two elected leaders, both Republicans, are in agreement on the issues.
When asked about it, Landry said he didn’t know why Temple was holding his own conference and referred further questions to the commissioner’s office, which was similarly vague about the situation.
“Tim is glad the governor is engaged on the issue,” Department of Insurance spokesman John Ford said. “He will have a lot of info tomorrow on his plans for [the legislative] session.”
The governor’s agenda also includes efforts to address personal injury lawsuits in the state, which some have blamed as the cause of expensive auto insurance. He wants lawmakers to eliminate the Housley presumption, which is a standard of evidence the Louisiana Supreme Court created for auto accidents, medical malpractice and other injury lawsuits in a precedent-setting 1991 case, Housley v. Cerise. In a nutshell, the Housley presumption says courts should assume a plaintiff’s injuries resulted from the accident in question if they were in good health beforehand.
Landry said he wants to “rein in” the heavy amounts of advertising by trial lawyers and prohibit insurance companies from factoring advertising expenses into their policy rates.
“I’m just as tired of seeing Morris Bart as I am of seeing the lizard,” the governor said, referencing the ubiquitous New Orleans trial lawyer and Geico’s spokesreptile.
Previous attempts to limit lawyer advertising in Louisiana have run up against the First Amendment, but Landry said he believes his proposal should pass constitutional muster.
The governor additionally wants to require insurers to offer 5% rate discounts on policies for commercial trucks outfitted with dashboard cameras. He also wants to prohibit the use of a driver’s credit score as an excuse to increase their rates, among other proposals.
The governor said he is tailoring his agenda to follow the data on every possible cause of the high rate crisis, adding that he is “tired of the lies” that have prevented meaningful change in the past.
The most recent figures from the Insurance Information Institute placed Louisiana at second in the nation for the highest average auto coverage at $1,558 a year in 2022. It trailed only Florida ($1,625) and was barely ahead of New York ($1,549).