Georgians deserve lower insurance costs. 2025 reforms aren’t cutting it.

Re: “How Georgia’s lawsuit reforms are paying off one year later,” by Georgia Insurance Commissioner John King, a Republican, May 1.

It’s no secret that our bills are becoming more expensive, and insurance is taking more of families’ budgets while offering less protection in return.

Instead of actually fighting to lower your costs and hold your insurance company accountable, Insurance Commissioner John King wants you to believe that last year’s lawsuit reforms are already “paying off.”

It’s a convenient story to tell in an election year, but it’s not grounded in reality.

Georgia’s “reforms” have not been around long enough to know if it has lowered premium costs for families. And there is no guarantee that insurance companies will actually pass the savings they receive back to you.

That’s the problem with the commissioner’s argument: It assumes that if insurance companies spend less on court cases, they will automatically charge you less. That’s not how it works. If no one is requiring them to fix how they’ve operated for years, they have no incentive to change.

Focus on harmful, underlying factors not just lawsuit reform

We’ve seen this in Florida, where lawmakers made similar promises. After passing tort reforms, companies did report lower legal costs, but homeowners are still paying some of the highest premiums in the country, with many struggling to get claims paid at all. A report from Weiss Ratings found that Florida insurers denied nearly 47% of homeowners’ claims in 2024, a 40% spike from before the reforms became law.

Even more telling, lawsuits didn’t disappear. Homeowners actually sued at higher rates.

And here in Georgia, the commissioner’s own example proves this point. He points to State Farm rate reductions as evidence the system is working. But, as The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has reported, Georgia was one of five states with the largest premium increases in 2025, while companies like State Farm continue to see record profits.

Dr. Ambuj “AJ” Jain is a Democratic candidate for Georgia Insurance Commissioner. (Courtesy)

We’ve seen this in Florida, where lawmakers made similar promises. After passing tort reforms, companies did report lower legal costs, but homeowners are still paying some of the highest premiums in the country, with many struggling to get claims paid at all. A report from Weiss Ratings found that Florida insurers denied nearly 47% of homeowners’ claims in 2024, a 40% spike from before the reforms became law.

Even more telling, lawsuits didn’t disappear. Homeowners actually sued at higher rates.

And here in Georgia, the commissioner’s own example proves this point. He points to State Farm rate reductions as evidence the system is working. But, as The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has reported, Georgia was one of five states with the largest premium increases in 2025, while companies like State Farm continue to see record profits.

Instead, the lawsuit reforms focus on reducing families’ ability to sue insurers, which does nothing to address these harmful, underlying factors. What it does is make it harder for policyholders to challenge denied or underpaid claims, leaving families with fewer options during some of the most challenging moments in their lives.

The Consumer Federation of America (CFA) has documented this pattern over several decades. Whenever insurers encounter a “hard market,” as they most recently did in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, they demand tort reform, despite there being no evidence of litigation causing significant profit loss. As experts with CFA have testified, “tort reform puts more money in insurers’ pockets, but it never takes less out of ours.”

Ban discriminatory practices and go after delayed and denied claims

Commissioner King’s piece also overlooks a basic question: If insurers are saving money because of these reforms, where is the proof that those savings are being returned to you?

Without strong oversight, there is no guarantee they will be.

That’s why the role of insurance commissioner is crucial, and why we need a different approach to ensure the system works for people and their families.

As someone who spent years inside the insurance industry, I know exactly how these pricing decisions are made. If we want to lower premiums, we need a commissioner willing to demand transparency and hold these companies accountable.

That starts with implementing prior rate approval authority, so insurers are forced to give good reasons and justification for rate increases before they go into effect.

Real leadership in the insurance commissioner office means banning discriminatory practices, like using ZIP codes and credit scores to set premium prices, factors that are irrelevant to your driving safety or level of home maintenance. It means investigating companies that deny or delay claims, ensuring families who pay premiums can count on the protections they paid for.

My solution isn’t to blame consumers for suing companies when they have been wronged. Instead, I’m committed to real change, addressing how the system works and what it will take to fix it for working people.