Louisiana’s Insurance Commissioner-elect, Tim Temple, said the state desperately needs more insurance capacity for its property market, but he is ruling out the insurance incentive program touted by outgoing Commissioner Jim Donelon.
“I am against the incentive program,” Temple said in a virtual town hall meeting hosted by Louisiana newspapers. “I don’t think that’s the right way to go.”
The program allocated millions in taxpayer money to incentivize carriers to enter the market, write more coverage in southern Louisiana, where Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp. is in many places the only option for coverage. As of Oct. 31, carriers wrote 46,928 policies under the program, which requires that the carriers remain on the policies for five years for the full incentive payment to be made.
Donelon has said the short-term program is working out better than expected, but Temple is unconvinced, saying it doesn’t get to the fundamental issue of making Louisiana a place where carriers want to have a presence.
Temple, who talked on the campaign trail about an early special session of the legislature to focus on insurance issues, said one is not likely to happen, but that he has a few ideas that he did not explain to provide relief to homeowners.
Mandating rate reductions is not among his plans, he said, saying that would simply drive more carriers out of the state.
“We want the affordability but you can’t have affordability until you have availability,” he said.
Temple does support the program to help homeowners fortify the roofs, windows and doors of their homes as “a step in the right direction,” but added that he doesn’t want to get in the business of “fortifying every home in south Louisiana”.
One approach would be to work on updating building codes to reflect the varying risks that apply to properties in different parts of the state, he said.
Temple was cautious when asked about tort reform, but he did say Louisiana has “excessive” litigation.
“I am pro-consumer,” he said. “But the best consumer protection is choice.”
Temple also was noncommittal about the coming plan for Elevance Health Inc. to purchase Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana. He said he would follow the proceedings for policyholders and a public hearing and “follow the law” when it came time to decide on the deal.
Elevance and BCBSLA put the plan on hold earlier this year to spend more time building up public support but intend to reactivate it soon.