Rate Cut Approved for 55,000 La. Citizens Customers

Property insurance rates for 55,000 customers of Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp. will be lowered, after a state insurance regulatory panel approved the decreases on Nov. 26.

The average rate decrease statewide for policyholders with Citizens, the state-run insurer of last resort, will be 2.1 percent, said Amy Whittington, a spokeswoman for the Department of Insurance. Not all Citizens policyholders will get a rate drop, but in some parishes the decrease will top 9 percent. The total rate cut is nearly $5.5 million, Whittington said.

The unanimous approval by the Louisiana Insurance Rating Commission was a formality because the rate lowering was required by law, but the decreases couldn’t take effect until the panel acted.

The law, sponsored by Rep. J.P. Morrell, D-New Orleans, removed a mandated markup on the price of Citizens insurance policies in 11 hurricane-affected parishes: Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard, Plaquemines, St. Tammany, Calcasieu, Cameron, Iberia, Lafourche, Terrebonne and Vermilion parishes.

The law took effect Aug. 15, so people who have paid a Citizens bill since the enactment of the law will get refunds within the next few months, under a separate action approved by the state insurance department.