WASHINGTON, DC – New reporting from the San Antonio Express-News found that USAA and its three affiliate insurers closed 51% of 2025 home insurance claims without ever paying policyholders, one of the highest denial rates among U.S. insurers, even as the company’s former CEO collected $14.1 million for working barely a quarter of the year.
The findings confirm what Unlocking America’s Future and others exposed in a December report: nearly half of all home insurance claims filed in Texas were closed without payment in 2024, the product of a 2017 state law, funded by insurance industry contributions, that made it harder for homeowners to sue over wrongful denials.
The pattern has continued unchecked in part because of the officials with oversight power over it. A separate UAF report found that Rep. Monica De La Cruz, Vice Chair of the House Housing and Insurance Subcommittee and a former State Farm agent, has held only two hearings on the home insurance crisis in three years, brought zero insurance executives in to testify, and co-sponsored industry-backed legislation making it harder for policyholders to challenge denied claims, all while collecting nearly $50,000 from property insurers.
“USAA denying over half of policyholders’ claims is the predictable result of the system Texas Republican elected officials and regulators built. Homeowners are paying record premiums for coverage that isn’t there when they need it, and the people who could fix it won’t,” said Jayson O’Neill, spokesperson for Unlocking America’s Future. “Claims closed without policyholders seeing a dime is a direct result of a law the industry paid to pass through the Republican-controlled legislature. Unfortunately, the one Texas member of Congress, Rep. Monica De La Cruz, who has direct oversight of the home insurance industry, is twiddling her thumbs and cashing checks from the same lobbyists who rigged the system.”
Texas Homeowners’ Exploitation by Insurance Corporations Exposed:
Unpaid home insurance claims in Texas climbed from 35% in 2004 to 47% in 2024, with a 10-point spike in the single year after the 2017 law passed.
Ten Texas home insurers closed more than half their claims without payment in 2024, including two that denied more than 60%.
The insurance industry funneled over $214,000 to Texans for Lawsuit Reform, the group that lobbied for the 2017 law, both before and after its passage.
Texas is now the third most expensive state for home insurance, with premiums up 55% since 2019 and costs nearly double the national average.
Rep. Monica De La Cruz’s district has the highest uninsured rate of any major U.S. metro area at 41.5%, nearly 14 points above the next-highest city.
De La Cruz has collected at least $49,995 from the property insurance industry and voted for a bill that cut FEMA’s budget by nearly $300 million.
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