Louisiana Residents Duped Once Again!

Don’t know if you missed it, but our local news outlets just covered a story about the increase in automobile insurance rates.  Our illustrious State Insurance Commissioner, Jim Donelon, was on the news giving all kind of excuses as to why this occurred.  An increase also occurred last year. However, when I wrote a commentary in the local newspaper several months ago questioning why this had occurred given the fact that our legislators had passed a bill they claimed would lower rates, I was castigated in several Letters to the Editor, insisting I was too impatient and that lower rates would occur.

In my initial commentary about this issue I wrote:  “In 2020, Louisiana politicians passed a bill which they touted as a major win for automobile drivers in our state, a promise of lower insurance rates.  Our Republican legislators duped the public into believing that our high auto insurance rates were due to the ridiculously high number of lawsuits filed against insurance companies by the overabundance of accident attorneys in our state.  In response, our esteemed legislators passed a bill that would limit damage suits by people injured in car wrecks. They claimed the bill would make the state’s auto insurance market more competitive and induce auto insurers to pass their cost savings from the bill to consumers.”

One of our more astute legislators wanted a ‘hold accountable’ clause included in the bill stipulating that the insurance companies would decrease rates 20%.  The majority of our reps refused to include that clause.  Maybe they were just more concerned about their campaign contributions from these insurance companies, rather than actually benefiting their constituents.

The reality of this entire situation is, we are still waiting for rates to drop and are apparently relying on the benevolence of the “Like a Good Neighbor” and “You’re in Good Hands” companies.  If their handling of home owners’ claims for Ida is any indication of their desire to provide relief to their paying customers, I doubt if we will ever see automobile insurance rates decrease, or stop increasing.

I'll repeat it once again, we have been duped by State Insurance Commissioner, Jim Donelon, the State Insurance Commissioners, and our representatives.  Let’s remember this at the next election.