The state's new insurance commissioner painted a rough picture today about the high rates for policies in Louisiana.
"Move to our state, and your auto insurance doubles. Move to our state, and your homeowner's insurance is going to triple," Tim Temple told the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry.
In his address he said there is no state with more expensive insurance.
"Louisiana is the most unaffordable state in America for insurance... we spend more of our hard-earned dollars on insurance than any other state."
He pledged that his department will work diligently to turn things around.
Recent efforts to change laws in hopes of driving down rates have failed.
"We're working ... to help bring about some change," Temple insisted.
When it comes to property insurance, companies have been going belly up over and over in the state in the aftermath of recent disasters.
"We had 12 companies go insolvent, over 100,000 claims have now gone from the standard market to Louisiana Citizens – the market of last resort," he detailed.
Temple called it "a bit of a challenge there on the homeowner side."
On the auto insurance side, Temple said too many lawsuits are largely to blame for the super high rates.
He called it "abuse of the legal system."
The insurance commissioner urged people not to make filing a lawsuit their first course of action.
"Litigation should never be a substitution for the claims process."
Temple told business leaders that Governor Jeff Landry and he would work together to help reform the legal system.
