Insurance reform expected to be a major priority in this year’s legislative session

gunnar3000 / Depositphotos.com

We are 50 days away from the regular legislative session which will begin April 14th. House Insurance Chairman Gabe Firment from Grant Parish says his committee will have a busy agenda.

“I don’t thing there is any doubt that auto insurance and insurance in general is the number one issue to our constituents.”

Firment says this year the priority is auto insurance, in particular the commercial auto insurance sector, where high costs are forcing businesses to park trucks and lay off workers.

“Small business people are hurting, big business is hurting, and really there’s a ripple effect throughout the entire economy that is not impacted by the high cost automobile insurance.”

Firment says legislators approved a package of property insurance reforms last year that will hopefully soon provide relief to rising property insurance premiums. This year Firment expects legislators will look to expand the Fortified Roof Program.

“If you can keep the roof intact when a catastrophic storm or a hurricane hits then that minimizes the damage, it minimizes the cost of the claim to the insurance company;  So, I think you’ll see legislation designed to continue to promote FORTIFIED roods.”