WASHINGTON, DC – American consumers and businesses are now paying more than $1 trillion annually in property and casualty insurance premiums, yet a new analysis from Brian Shearer, Director of Competition and Regulatory Policy at Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator, reveals that insurers are spending only 62 cents of every premium dollar on actual claims, allocating the rest towards profits, fighting claims, advertising, executive perks, and shareholder returns. In an accompanying white paper, Shearer recommends: insurance commissioners and regulators deny unnecessary rate increases; institute a 80% loss-ratio floor; and increase transparency, among other solutions.
Two recent reports from Unlocking America’s Future (UAF) exposed how congressional Republicans in Florida and Texas — the two states at the epicenter of the insurance affordability crisis — have consistently sided with the insurance industry and polluters over the homeowners they were elected to protect, rather than pursue policy options to alleviate the crisis and lower homeowners costs. Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of congressional members announced that they are spearheading an effort to address rising homeowner and flood insurance costs.
“While homeowners across the country are facing skyrocketing insurance premiums and a collapsing market, the congressional Republican representatives in these states are doing the insurance industry’s bidding,” said Kyle Herrig, spokesperson for Unlocking America’s Future. “These Republican lawmakers have chosen to side with polluters and property insurers by shooting down need reform measures and preparedness investments, all while insurance companies hoard 38 cents of every premium dollar instead of paying claims as homeowners struggle to maintain coverage and a roof over their head.”
Florida: Republican Delegation Protects Industry While Constituents Face Crisis
A UAF report released earlier this month documents a pattern of votes, campaign contributions, and inaction by Florida’s Republican House delegation that has left the state’s homeowners increasingly exposed.
Florida homeowners saw an 18% jump in insurance premiums in 2025, driven in part by the devastating 2024 hurricane season. Climate scientists have found that approximately 44% of the damage caused in Florida by a Category 4 storm like Hurricane Helene can be attributed to climate change, and that storms like Milton would have been a Category 2 — not Category 3 — without it. Yet Florida’s Republican delegation has consistently voted against disaster preparedness and climate mitigation.
- Florida’s entire Republican House delegation voted for a March 2025 spending package that cut FEMA’s budget by $294 million and left the Disaster Relief Fund so depleted that FEMA was forced to defer expenses and rescind already-promised grants.
- A majority of Florida House Republicans voted against a September 2024 bill allocating $20 billion to FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund — just weeks before Hurricane Milton struck Florida and drove a spike in home insurance premiums.
- Every Florida Republican voted for legislation to reverse the entirety of President Biden’s climate agenda, despite research showing climate change has made hurricanes significantly more intense and costly for Florida homeowners.
- Florida Republican House members have collectively accepted nearly $2 million in career contributions from the oil and gas industry, and four members have received donations directly from major property insurance interests.
Particularly notable is Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, Florida’s only representative on the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance, has held no hearings addressing the home insurance crisis during her tenure. In fact, Rep. Salazar didn’t even attend her subcommittee’s hearing on reinsurance. She has accepted at least $9,000 from property insurers while representing a district where 88% of critical infrastructure is at risk from flooding.
Texas: Committee Leader Collects $50,000 From Insurers, Fails District With Nation’s Worst Uninsured Rate
- A second UAF report focused on Rep. De La Cruz of McAllen, Texas, who serves as Vice Chair of the House Housing and Insurance Subcommittee, revealed that McAllen has the highest rate of uninsured homes among major U.S. metro areas — 41.5%, nearly 14 percentage points above any other city. Despite this, and despite promising when she took the post that she would “hold the industry accountable,” Rep. De La Cruz’s record tells a different story:
- In three years co-leading the subcommittee, only two hearings have addressed the home insurance crisis — neither brought a single insurance company executive to testify. Instead, the subcommittee blamed risk factors such as ESG principles for rising costs.
- De La Cruz co-sponsored industry-backed legislation (H.R. 1109) imposing new burdens on third-party litigation financing — the mechanism that allows low-income policyholders to challenge wrongful claim denials. When Texas enacted similar restrictions in 2017, claim denials rose sharply and average premiums climbed from $1,860 to $2,919 by 2024.
- She twice co-sponsored legislation to block federal regulators from collecting data on how climate-related disasters affect insurance affordability.
- She voted to cut FEMA’s budget by nearly $300 million and supported the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ that set the stage for the ongoing DHS shutdown.
- She has collected at least $49,995 from property insurers and industry associations — including repeated contributions from State Farm, Liberty Mutual, the American Property Casualty Insurance Association, and the Independent Insurance Agents association. De La Cruz is herself a former insurance agent.
- De La Cruz has also been inactive on the National Flood Insurance Program, sponsoring none of the 27 reform bills introduced during her tenure — despite representing a district with severe flood risk and a FEMA disaster relief system that experts say is in urgent need of reform.
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