NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – Gov. Jeff Landry delivered lengthy testimony before the House Insurance Committee on a bill he says would help alleviate Louisiana’s insurance crisis.

But Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple and insurance companies oppose House Bill 576.

“I am going to beg y’all to stop this circus,” Landry said.

Landry argued that residents and businesses continue to face high auto and property insurance premiums, despite lawmakers having already passed reforms that insurers claimed would help lower rates.

“And no one has been able to show me the empirical data under which when we’ve done any of those things that have the rates have gone down one bit,” he said.

The bill would strengthen the insurance commissioner’s authority to deny excessive insurance rates, according to Landry.

“What we are here today to talk about is giving the insurance commissioner the, to hang the sword [of] Damocles over the insurance companies, so that when we make the adjustment in the tort law like y’all have done dozens and dozens of times our people get the benefits that we claim and we debate they should,” he said.

But Landry faced opposition from some Republicans on the committee.

“After we’re all out of here, if this bill would pass we would still be left with a situation where an insurance commissioner could potentially wake up one day, a year before an election and decide he’s going to lower rates and she is going to lower rates to maybe help them the next go around,” said Rep. Jay Galle’, R-Mandeville.

Landry pushed back.

“If this language was so dangerous it would be driving companies out of Mississippi and Alabama,” he said.

Temple testified against the bill, defending the current rating system.

“Our rating system works and reduces the likelihood of artificially suppressing rates which are dangerous and could lead to insolvency and reduced competition and other results that only are harmful to consumers,” Temple said. “The problem with our market is that claims costs are too high and that is what’s driving up rates.”

Landry also proposed limiting attorney advertising.

“I think at this point the people of Louisiana are tired of us pointing fingers and shifting the blame to the industry, pointing to attorneys, they want real results, they want lower rates,” said Rep. Matt Willard, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus.

Landry criticized insurers, saying they are profiting while Louisianans bear the burden of soaring premiums.

“They come over here and they use us like a bunch of puppets,” Landry said.

Lawmakers said they continue to receive inquiries from constituents about skyrocketing insurance costs.

“I get a lot of questions of why can’t we cap homeowners at like flood insurance essentially is capped, and I think this actually would be good for transparency,” said Rep. Mandie Landry, D-New Orleans.

After the committee voted to advance HB 576 to the House floor, Temple spoke with reporters.

“I think it’s smoke and mirrors, it’s not addressing the root cause of the problem, we’ve all heard it, it’s excessive litigation and excessive bodily injury claims,” he said.

Temple had previously stated that it had been months since he and Landry had discussed insurance matters. When asked about it during the meeting, Landry said he invited Temple to the governor’s mansion on Tuesday.

Temple confirmed the meeting took place.

“[We] had a good conversation, again I think we are trying to work with each other,” he said. “We both want the same goal which is for citizens and businesses to have lower insurance. We just have a little bit different perspective on how to get there.”

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