Jeff Landry's Insurance Plan Isn’t Conservative—It’s Government Overreach
It's not just a bad idea. It’s a fundamentally anti-free market one.
Louisiana is one of the most conservative states in the nation. So why is our Republican governor pushing a plan that sounds like it came straight out of a government command-and-control playbook?
Governor Jeff Landry is backing a bill—crafted by Democrat trial lawyer Rep. Robby Carter—that would give the state’s Insurance Commissioner unilateral power to set insurance rates by fiat. Not just review them. Not regulate them. Set them. And if lawmakers don’t pass it, Landry has apparently promised to call a special session to force it through.
That’s not just a bad idea. It’s a fundamentally anti-conservative one.
Government Rate-Setting Is Not Free Market Reform
Under current Louisiana law, insurance companies submit their proposed rates, and the Department of Insurance’s actuaries evaluate the numbers to ensure fairness and viability. It’s a system built to keep checks and balances in place—until now.
The new bill would blow that up and give the Commissioner of Insurance the ability to dictate pricing. That’s not a conservative solution to Louisiana’s broken insurance market. That’s the kind of top-down, big-government policymaking conservatives in Louisiana have long rejected.
What it is, at its heart, is price control. Good, old-fashioned, socialist price control that would make Bernie Sanders giddy.
Where’s the Tort Reform?
States like Florida and Georgia have seen real movement in insurance reform because they tackled the litigation abuse, driving up rates. Tort reform is the path to a more competitive, stable insurance market—not price controls.
Landry was elected in a red wave. But instead of using that momentum to take on the trial lawyer lobby and push through long-overdue tort reform, he’s now supporting a bill that rewards that very same lobby. And make no mistake—they’ve funded Democrats for decades and played a major role in crafting the system that are driving insurers out of the state.
Conservatives Need to Speak Up—Now
This plan isn’t about solving the insurance crisis. It’s about consolidating power and appeasing special interests. And it sets a dangerous precedent. Today, it’s Tim Temple in the Commissioner’s chair, and he’s fighting for real reform. But what happens when the next commissioner doesn’t have the same values?
Giving one person that much power over the insurance industry—one of the most critical parts of our economy—is not just irresponsible. It’s reckless.
Louisiana voters didn’t elect a Republican supermajority and a conservative governor to enact command-economy policies. We elected them to roll back government overreach and put the state back on a pro-growth, pro-market path.