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Opinion | A Politically Made Insurance Panic

WSJ, June 9, 2024

Opinion | A Politically Made Insurance Panic

  • What happened: Plaintiff’s firms’ aggressive tactics to inflate damages in insurance-related litigation have led to an 80% increase in average bodily injury claims since 2014 and contributed to $4 billion in commercial auto insurance costs in 2021.
    • These abusive lawsuits, paired with other external market pressures—like inflation and costlier natural disasters—are leading to unsustainable insurance markets across the country.
  • Sticker shock: Nationwide, auto insurance rates have surged by 46.2% since January 2020, while homeowner premiums have risen by 37.8% since 2019.
  • In Texas, homeowner premiums have spiked by 54.5% since 2019, ranking it as the third highest increase among all states in the country.
  • Around the country: Gov. Ron DeSantis implemented legal reforms in 2022 to stabilize Florida’s insurance market. These reforms resulted in a smaller increase in homeowner premiums despite remaining significantly higher than the national average.
    • In 2021, Florida saw over 100,000 lawsuits totaling $7.8 billion in damages, surpassing all other states combined, driving up homeowner premiums.
  • What about Texas? Texans are no strangers to severe weather – that’s why we pay some of the highest property insurance rates in the nation. This lawsuit abuse has serious consequences for every property insurance consumer in our state.

Read the full article here.