Texas lawmakers hope to earn the increasing insurance bills for home owners even when they admit that many of them only can do to process costs.
Legislators have advanced bills to reduce the amount of insurance companies whose prices can rise and help homeowners make their homes more confirmation. They also sought to force insurance companies to be more with homeowners when they decide to cover, or refuse them in the first place.
Texas pays some of the highest insurance premiums in the country. On average, homeowners in Texas saw that their insurance rates are rising with double numbers in recent years – which are far from the previous decade when these increases were not unknown. House owners’ insurance rates increased by about 19 % in 2024, according to the Ministry of Insurance in Texas, decreased slightly from 21 % in the previous year.
Insurance experts say a number of factors have paid insurance costs in recent years. On the one hand, property values in Texas increased in the state’s population boom – the cost was raised to ensure homes and companies. The climate change has increased harsh weather events such as bad storms, hurricanes, and freezing in winter and made harsh weather more common. With the state’s population growth, more people move to this harsh weather. The high costs of employment and construction increased the cost of repairing damage when the harsh weather events harm at home.
Buying homeowners insurance is not an optional cost. The lender requests home buyers to purchase insurance for a real estate loan. Even if the house is paid, insurance experts say it is not wise to go without covering in disaster.
Even when lawmakers are looking for ways to address the insurance crisis, they recognize many insurance drivers who exceed the control of legislators.
“We cannot control the weather, we cannot control inflation,” said the Deputy State Tom Olverson, a Republican of Cypress behind one of these suggestions, in the House of Representatives Committee last month. “I can’t control the availability of building materials, and I can’t control how to design homes that have already been built, and what is the standard that has been built for.”
They find themselves in setting an attempt to curb the exorbitant insurance costs without relieving insurance companies and focusing the insurance market in the state.
One of the suggestions made by Senator Charles Schuerner, R-EGEORGTOWN, aims to give document holders a check against sharp price increases. In Texas, insurance companies can provide an increase in the proposed rate with the Ministry of Insurance in Texas, the state’s insurance regulator, and the implementation of new rates immediately. If the agency later decides that the increase is unreasonable, it can be rejected.
The Senate Bill 1643, which has cleared the Senate but is awaiting a hearing in the House of Representatives, will require the Ministry of Insurance to approve any increase in prices above 10 % before it comes into effect.
“With companies making major changes in prices, the legislative body must ensure that the organizational environment gives these deposits the audit level that requires it.”
This proposal has extracted the rush from the insurance industry. Bian Floyd, who heads the Texas Alliance for Insurance Solutions at reasonable prices, a group representing the main insurance companies including allstate and USAA, a group representing the main insurance companies including allstate and USAA. Floyd said that insurance companies may continue to increase in prices less than they would have accessed if they were worried about the organizers, they would not agree to larger companies.
“This is not good for consumers,” said Floyd.
Chouener said in a statement that the government insurance regulator claim to increase the rate of review of more than 10 % does not necessarily mean that the organizer will automatically reject these increases. He said that the draft law “simply seeks to curb unrestricted application and review practices.”
Consumer defenders argue that the current state system does not provide a real examination of insurance companies – a system that can theoretically help Chromener’s proposal. But they also feel anxious from insurance companies, the intention of the law will simply thwart by requesting an increase in prices, a practice that does not break the bill. WARE Wendell, CEO of the TEXAS Watch Consumer Group, assumed that the insurance company can theory to provide a 9 % month increase and seek to increase next month.
“Insurance companies can come and carry,” Windel said.
Chouener said that the Texas Ministry of Insurance still requires insurance companies to justify the increase in their prices even if they submit multiple increases per year. He said that if these increases are not justified, the state can still refuse to increase.
Insurance companies and consumer groups agree on some proposals. House Bill 1576, which is composed by Olverson, will create a state grant program to help homeowners adjust their homes to bear hurricanes and wind storms, similar to a similar program in Alabama. The idea is that insurance companies will be more likely to secure the home if it is a coincidence against the harsh weather, and the cost of insurance of this house will be less.
“It is a very unique way for us to reject the cost of insurance mainly by encouraging people – not the imposition, this is not an authorization – to rebuild your home to a higher level that suffers from less and less expensive risks,” Olverson told the House Insurance Committee in April.
The bill cleansed the house late last month. The Senate has not yet taken. The amount of funds that the state will spend on the program depends on the draft law to purify both rooms, and on the results of the budget negotiations between the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Long ideas have looked at other ideas. The Ministry of Governmental Insurance is supervised by one commissioner appointed by the ruler. Another Chouener’s suggestion would expand to three commissioners, one of whom will be asked for experience in calling for consumers. The legislators have also developed bills to prevent insurance companies from forcing consumers to search for homeowners insurance to also buy car insurance, and he asked insurance companies to actively reveal the reason for their refusal to cover homeowners or cancel their policies.
Disclosure: The coalition in Texas for reasonable prices and the United States of America was financial supporters in Texas Tribune, a non -profit non -profit news organization that is partially funded by donations from members, institutions and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters do not play any role in the Tribune press. Find a full list here.
This article originally appeared in Texas Tribune in
The Texas Tribune is a member, non -party newsroom, to inform and legislate Texas in the policy and policy of the state. Learn more about Texastribune.org.
