Louisiana Citizens, the insurance provider of last resort for homeowners who cannot get coverage from elsewhere, is asking for a 63 percent rate hike beginning next year.
Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon says Citizens has gone from 37,000 policyholders in 2021 to 114,000 today. Many homeowners were forced to take on Citizens as their insurers either dropped their coverage or went bankrupt in the wake of multiple major hurricanes hitting Louisiana in 2020 and 2021.
Donelon says there is good news on the horizon. He plans to renew a program not used since the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, to incentivize private insurers to take on policyholders from Citizens.
The groundwork, says Donelon, is being laid, but it will take legislative action to revive the program.
