HJNO Mar/Apr 2026

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS I  MAR / APR 2026 9 Tim Temple was elected Commissioner of Insurance in 2023. He holds leadership and advisory roles with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, serving as vice chair of the International Insurance Relations Committee and as a member of the Property and Casualty Committee and the Policy and Research Steering Committee. His broader NAIC involvement includes membership on multiple task forces and committees addressing actuarial standards, market oversight, solvency, reinsurance, producer licensing, antifraud efforts, and consumer issues. TIM TEMPLE Commissioner of Insurance, State of Louisiana Dianne Hartley, Editor What appears to be driving health insurance rate increases the most in Louisiana in recent years? Commissioner Tim Temple There are multiple drivers involved in health insurance rate increases over the last several years. In the recent past, the two core drivers have been the increasing cost of prescription drug coverage and the increasing utilization of high-cost medical procedures. In much the same way that the beginning of the last century heralded explosive growth in the quantity of life modern medicine could deliver, the beginning of this century has brought with it explosive growth in the quality of life modern medicine can allow us to achieve. There are a lot of recent medical and pharmaceutical developments that are nothing short of life-changing and miraculous, but they have come with a large price tag. We’re all still grappling with the best ways to maximize access to those treatments while dealing with the ballooning costs of coverage. Editor How much have premiums increased over the past year, and how much leverage does the department realistically have to reduce or reject proposed rate hikes? Temple For 2026, rates went up about 24% in the individual market and about 10% in the group market. The overwhelming driver of the difference between those two was the federal decision to end the enhanced premium tax credits subsidizing the individual market during the Covid- 19 pandemic. Those subsidies were never meant to be permanent, but sunsetting them has certainly been a disruption. I’m still hopeful that Congress will provide some relief to give the market time to adjust over the next few years. My office can and does challenge rate hikes that are not supported by sound actuarial analysis. Our role is to ensure that rate changes are based on factors permit- ted under the law and to monitor compli- ance with state and federal requirements. Health insurers have strict requirements on howmuch of every premium dollar they’re allowed to keep for administrative costs and profit, and we enforce that by reviewing rate filings to make sure the money they’re col- lecting is being spent on care. Because med- ical costs really do support high insurance premiums, however, we have little authority to reject those rate increases. Those higher costs have been the core driver since even before theAffordable CareAct was enacted. Editor Louisiana consistently ranks at or near the bottom nationally in overall health outcomes. Howmuch do the state’s chronic disease burden and broader population health challenges drive insurance premiums and influence the stability of the insurance market? Temple A lot of Louisiana’s health outcome performance is driven by our poor positioning in the core determinants of health, and that’s a story more about Louisiana’s medical safety nets than about ONE on ONE