If state lawmakers wanted to score an election-year win with both the public and business community, they would have found a way to lower Louisiana’s notoriously high auto insurance rates.
Easier said than done, however—especially when dealing with this state’s fractured Legislature. Despite a litany of annual proposals designed to address the problem, little has been accomplished over the years in the way of reducing premiums. Even the state’s most powerful business lobby couldn’t get legislative approval for its signature tort reform package—House Bill 372—which it argues is the key to lower auto insurance rates.
Louisiana drivers, meanwhile, are stuck paying the nation’s second-highest auto premiums, making insurance even more unaffordable in an already-poor state.
The situation is perhaps worse for businesses with commercial fleets, which are essentially begging for relief from high rates, claiming the problem is at a near-crisis level as carriers continue to depart the state’s commercial market.
So why—on an issue almost everyone agrees must be addressed—has nothing been done? Because there are deep disagreements among powerful groups over how the problem should be fixed—if it can be fixed at all.
Read the full story from Business Report, which provides an in-depth look at the moving pieces at play behind Louisiana’s sky-high car insurance rates. Send comments editor@businessreport.com.
