Governor John Bel Edwards says he'll sign the property insurance bill being considered by state lawmakers if they send it to his desk. However, Edwards says much more needs to be done to help lower insurance costs for homeowners.
"At a minimum we have to make sure that we have a vibrant marketplace for insurance so that you have multiple insurers competing with one another," Edwards told WWL's Newell Normand. "That's how you hold premiums down. But we also have to make sure those insurers are financially solvent, that they are properly capitalized for the risk that they are assuming, and that they obtain reinsurance in the requisite amounts to make sure that once a storm happens, a policy holder is going to get the benefit of the premiums they have paid."
Edwards says he believes it's time to look outside the state for solutions.
"But at the bare minimum, we should be collaborating with one another and learning from one another," Edwards said. "If Alabama has done something that really helped with their situation, we should be too proud to go over there and borrow from them.
"We cannot be too proud to learn from other states. If Florida has done something that has been successful, Alabama, Mississippi, you name it, I think we have to be willing to embrace those measures."
Normand asked Edwards if Louisiana has looked into forming or joining a consortium of gulf states to tackle the property insurance issue. Edwards said it's an idea he likes.
"What happens in these other states impact all of us," Edwards said. "If there is an opportunity to do that . . . maybe there is a compact that we can enter into to try to do that. Quite frankly, I had not heard that discussed before you just mentioned it, but it sounds at first blush like something that we ought to see if that's an avenue that we can go down."
Edwards says he'll work with whomever he needs to--whether it's the insurance commissioner, state legislators, or anyone else--to bring insurers back to the state and to drive down property insurance rates.
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