On Insurance, Bill Cassidy Blames Baton Rouge. The Facts Tell a Very Different Story.
- Staff @ LPR
- 8 hours ago
- 4 min read
During a recent tele-town hall (clipped below), Senator Bill Cassidy suggested that Louisiana’s high property and auto insurance premiums were simply “a Jeff Landry issue” and “a state issue.”
That claim does not match the facts.
Insurance costs in Louisiana are influenced by many factors, including storms, rebuilding costs, litigation trends, and national insurance markets. But what is clear is that since taking office, Governor Jeff Landry and the Louisiana Legislature have taken significant steps to address the crisis head-on.
Washington, meanwhile, has done little to address the national cost drivers that push insurance premiums higher across the country.
Louisiana Has Taken Real Action
Since taking office, Governor Landry and the Legislature have advanced one of the most significant insurance reform efforts Louisiana has seen in years.
The state enacted a sweeping package of legal and regulatory reforms designed to stabilize the insurance market and encourage companies to write policies in Louisiana again. These measures targeted several drivers of rising premiums, including litigation practices that increase claim costs and discourage insurers from operating in the state.
The reforms modernized Louisiana’s “No Pay, No Play” law, increased transparency around medical billing in accident cases, and updated liability standards in civil cases so that individuals who are primarily responsible for an accident cannot recover damages. Lawmakers also strengthened regulatory oversight of insurance rate filings and prohibited insurers from including certain advertising expenses in rate calculations.
These changes were aimed at restoring stability to the market and encouraging more competition among insurers.
Early signs suggest the approach is beginning to work. According to reporting citing the Louisiana Department of Insurance, personal auto insurance premiums in the state declined by 5.8 percent in 2025 as insurers began adjusting rates and expanding coverage.
While more work remains, the direction is finally moving the right way.
Reducing Risk Through Fortified Roofs
Louisiana policymakers are also addressing another key driver of insurance costs: storm damage.
Homes in hurricane-prone areas face higher risks, which translate into higher insurance premiums. To reduce those risks, the state has expanded efforts to promote FORTIFIED roof standards, which are designed to withstand high winds and significantly reduce storm damage.
The Fortified Roof program helps homeowners upgrade their roofs to stronger, hurricane-resistant standards. Homes built or retrofitted to these standards are far less likely to suffer catastrophic damage during storms, which ultimately reduces claims and lowers risk for insurers.
Governor Landry has also encouraged partnerships with the private sector to expand access to these upgrades and increase participation in the program.
Mitigation programs like this represent one of the most effective long-term strategies for lowering insurance costs in coastal states.
The Real Drivers of Louisiana’s Insurance Costs
Senator Cassidy’s argument that Louisiana’s insurance crisis is purely a state issue ignores the broader forces that actually drive premiums.
Insurance pricing is shaped by national and global markets. Two of the biggest drivers are reinsurance costs and litigation exposure, neither of which is confined to Louisiana.
Reinsurance is the way that insurance companies protect themselves against catastrophic losses. Because Louisiana sits in the Gulf hurricane zone, insurers operating in the state must purchase significant reinsurance coverage in global markets. When reinsurance prices rise, those costs are passed directly to policyholders through higher premiums.
That dynamic is not controlled by Baton Rouge.
At the same time, litigation trends nationwide continue to increase claim severity and settlement costs. When lawsuits become more frequent and damage awards escalate, insurers must price that risk into every policy they write.
Those costs ultimately fall on families and small businesses.
This is precisely why Louisiana policymakers moved aggressively to pass legal reforms designed to reduce lawsuit abuse and stabilize the insurance market.And this is where Senator Cassidy’s argument begins to fall apart. During the same tele-town hall where he insisted property and auto insurance were strictly “state issues,” he acknowledged that the National Flood Insurance Program is a federal issue and highlighted his efforts in Washington to reform it. But if flood insurance can be shaped by federal policy, it is hard to argue that the broader forces affecting insurance markets somehow stop at the Louisiana state line. Cassidy cannot claim credit for influencing one insurance market while pretending the others exist entirely outside federal policy.
Cassidy’s Record: Plenty of Talk, Little Action
It’s hard to take Senator Cassidy’s criticism seriously when Louisiana is passing tort reform to reduce lawsuit abuse while Congress, where Cassidy has served for more than 15 years, hasn’t passed meaningful national tort reform in decades.
And the record shows this is not a new pattern.
During his time in the Louisiana State Senate, Cassidy never authored a single piece of legislation aimed at reducing insurance premiums or enacting broad tort reform. His legislative filings focused largely on unrelated issues ranging from education programs to commemorative resolutions and specialty license plates.
In other words, Senator Cassidy has spent years discussing Louisiana’s insurance problems, but the legislative record shows little evidence that he has ever led the fight to fix them.
Congress Should Do Its Part
Louisiana leaders are taking steps to address the crisis within the authority of state government. Tort reform has been enacted. Market stabilization policies are in place. Risk mitigation efforts such as the Fortified Roof program are expanding to reduce storm damage and lower long-term claims exposure.
But some of the most significant cost drivers remain national issues.
If Congress truly wants to help bring down insurance premiums, it should start by addressing the litigation environment that drives up claim costs across the country. National tort reform would reduce abusive lawsuits, bring greater predictability to liability exposure, and lower costs throughout the insurance system.
Louisiana is doing the work.
If Senator Cassidy wants to help Louisiana families see real relief, the next step is not blaming Baton Rouge. It is leading the effort in Washington to fix the national cost drivers that continue to push premiums higher.
Bill Cassidy Tele-town hall - 3/3/2026
