In less than two weeks, the Louisiana Legislature will begin the 2023 legislative session and Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon has a set of priorities that he hopes will give some relief to thousands of homeowners who have either lost their home insurance coverage or are now paying pricy premiums. The insurance crisis set in after multiple active hurricane seasons in South Louisiana. In the aftermath of storms like Hurricane Ida, many insurance providers become insolvent or pulled out of the state due to the volume of claims.
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Responding to desperate and frustrated cries from affected homeowners, the legislature held a special legislative session earlier this year to figure out a path forward. Legislators passed a $45 million funding bill to allow the Louisiana Department of Insurance to create an incentive program to entice more insurers to write policies in the state. On Wednesday’s edition of WWL First News with Tommy Tucker Wednesday, Donelon explained some of his priorities as it relates to the incentive program.
“My priority for this session is to follow up on the incentive program that was funded in the recent special session that by the end of this week nine companies will have cooperative endeavor agreements which are the contracts required to give them state money. And they will be starting to write (policies) to earn that money. They’ll be on the clock if, you will, beginning next week after those checks are issued. And what we had was $45 million appropriated we had nine companies ask for $62-million of grant money. So, what we’re going for the legislature for is the additional $17 million to fill all the requests for the nine companies that qualified to participate. If we get that funding then our calculation is that 120,000 policies will be written by those companies in short order,” Donelon told Tucker.
The commissioner said at least half of those 120,000 policies will come out of Citizens insurance, which is the insurance of last resort in Louisiana.
Donelon said he believes by securing those policies thousands of homeowners will be able to maintain coverage for their property.
Listen to the entire conversation including Donelon’s other legislative priority plus his take on whether the insurance commissioner should be an elected or appointed position: