Skyrocketing Insurance Costs

Background

Families across Louisiana are struggling to keep up with rising insurance costs for homes, cars, and healthcare. We pay the highest auto insurance rates in America and have a significant share of uninsured motorists. Additionally, Louisiana usually ranks among the highest, often behind Florida, for high home insurance premiums. Home insurance premiums have increased 38% since 2023, especially since Category 4 Hurricane Ida. Meanwhile, Louisiana lost 70,000 National Flood Insurance Program policies between 2022 and 2024 as premiums spiked under FEMA's new risk-rating system. This includes a 234% average premium increase reported in one 2023 analysis alone. Lauren understands the difficulties of being dropped by her home insurance company after a major natural disaster, switching carriers, and being left to absorb much higher home and flood insurance premiums.

This is unacceptable. Hard-working families shouldn't have to choose between protecting their homes and putting food on the table.

Lauren’s Priorities in Congress

• Increase oversight of insurance companies
• Advocate for federal action to cap annual insurance rate increases
• Push for funding for mitigation infrastructure that ensures our homes are more resistant to climate, hurricanes, flood, fire, and other storm factors and that these cost burdens are not just passed along to consumers
• Propose looking into collecting data from insurance companies in states like Louisiana and Florida to better understand the premium increases.
• Explore ways to offer federal and public insurance options that institute caps on the premiums for consumers as an alternative to the private insurance market.
• For automobile insurance, eliminate discriminatory and predatory practices by companies that use information such as zip code, income, profession, credit score rather than driving record to determine the rate of the insurance premium
• Oppose a lapse of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which is supposed to expire at the end of September 2026, and oppose a shift to privatize the program
• Push for a reform or a longer term authorization for the national flood insurance program to make flood coverage more affordable and accurately priced for Louisiana homeowners and renters
• Continue payment plan options to help newer or working class homeowners, especially those in coastal areas in the country seeing higher premiums each year.
• Streamline and speed up FEMA and HUD disaster recovery funding so families displaced by hurricanes aren't stuck waiting years for aid to rebuild.