Your obsession often becomes my obsession.

With your alerts we investigated the rise in natural gas and electricity bills. We’ve obsessed together about filing property tax/appraisal protests, about roofers and door-to-door sales hucksters.

But only lately have we delved deeply into the shadowy world of insurance.

Apparently, complaints about the industry aren’t enough to spur fixes.

I only know of one major insurance reform law that emerged from the 2025 Texas Legislature, and it’s not going to set the world on fire. The new law requires insurance companies to go beyond canceling your insurance. Now they must tell you why.

The Senior Source of Dallas said in a statement that the new law adds some transparency and “and it will empower consumers to make informed decisions about their coverage and financial planning.”

It’s a start for insurance reform in Texas. Next year, the Texas Legislature should acknowledge the insurance crisis — high premiums, massive claim denials, obscene CEO compensation salaries, and weakened powers of state regulators.

It’s a nonpartisan issue. Zoe Middleton, a social policy adviser for the Union of Concerned Scientists, told me, “There are people on both sides of the aisle that recognize this is an untenable situation.”

She criticized the insurance industry for dodging reforms.

“By digging their heels in and not coming to the table they’re really allowing risk to grow in a dangerous way,” she said.

Here’s where the danger comes in for insurance companies. One of the most powerful state senators is Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown. He introduced a bill in the last session to strengthen the regulatory powers of the Texas Department of Insurance. This is no small thing, considering Schwertner is chairman of the committee that reviews insurance bills. His bill passed the Senate, but it died in the House.

Similarly, a bill submitted by Texas Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, a top Democratic lawmaker, walked down the same reform path. But it, too, was blocked in the House.

The insurance industry wants a different law. David Sampson, president and CEO of American Property Casualty Insurance Association, wrote in a letter to The Dallas Morning News: “Next state legislators should pass reasonable legal reforms that will limit jackpot jury awards in lawsuits.”

He justifies this by saying, “After two years of big rate increases due to inflation and an increase in catastrophic weather events, home insurance rate increases leveled off in 2025.”

I fear limiting jury awards would only make matters worse.

Ware Wendell, director of Texas Watch, a pro-consumer lobbying organization, said the state needs to acknowledge that the “file and use” regulatory power is too weak. In that, companies file their rates and then immediately use them. 

They don’t have to wait for regulatory approval. That gives insurance companies too much power, he says.

He wishes Texas would switch to the “prior approval” system. Companies would need approval before, not after, launching new rates.

“We need a change,” he says. “TDI needs more tools to stop overcharges before they start.” Homeowners can’t take more rate shocks. His group hosts a petition on its website for you to show support for prior approval.

Answering my questions, the state insurance department told me last year that “TDI hasn’t disproved a homeowners rate filing from those submitted since 2017.”

The agency says there is some oversight: “TDI requested more information on 77% of property and casualty rate filings in 2024,” TDI told me. 

When a rate filing can lead to disapproval, TDI asks questions and sends its objections back to the insurer.

“Insurers then work to change the filing and bring it into compliance with state law,” TDI told me. “Insurers may also withdraw the filing and file a new rate that does meet state law.”

By doing this, TDI says it has saved Texans millions of dollars.

Doug Quinn, who directs the American Policyholder Association, which investigates fraud allegations committed by insurance companies, asks companies: “Why can’t you just be happy with a reasonable profit?”

He said 1 out of 7 homeowners doesn’t have insurance because they can’t afford it.

From 2024 to 2025, insurance companies’ profits jumped from $23 billion to $65 billion in underwriting gains, Quinn said. The industry also made more than $150 billion in profits from investments.

The insurance industry, Quinn told me, is “one of the wealthiest and most powerful industries in the country, so don’t expect it to get fixed anytime soon. Not until ordinary people stand up and demand something be done.”

Read part two of this series on insurance reforms from The Watchdog here.