{"id":169666,"date":"2026-02-18T12:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T12:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/169666\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T12:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T12:30:10","slug":"as-texas-new-insurance-commissioner-takes-office-she-must-deal-with-insurance-poverty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/169666\/","title":{"rendered":"As Texas\u2019 new insurance commissioner takes office, she must deal with insurance poverty"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following is an open letter from The Watchdog<\/a> to new Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) Commissioner Amanda Crawford.<\/p>\n

Dear Insurance Commissioner Crawford<\/a>: <\/p>\n

Congratulations on your new job. Hope you\u2019ve enjoyed your first days at TDI. You are the chief regulator over 3,400 insurance companies and 875,000 agents and adjusters. <\/p>\n

Now the hard part begins.<\/p>\n

Watchdog Alert<\/p>\n

Are you a taxpayer in Texas? The Watchdog has your back.<\/p>\n

By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n

You are stepping into the spotlight as Texans struggle with an insurance crisis<\/a>. There\u2019s a name for it: insurance poverty. <\/p>\n

Homeowners all over the country are suffering as they pay higher premiums and deductibles and, in some cases, get less coverage in return. Some are going without coverage because they can\u2019t afford it.<\/p>\n

Texas culture is tilted in favor of the all-powerful insurance industry<\/a>, not the consumer. Let\u2019s not pretend otherwise.<\/p>\n

Some states have strict regulatory insurance departments that must approve rate increases before a company can unleash them onto the public.<\/p>\n

Other states have what\u2019s called a \u201cfile-and-use\u201d setup. Companies file their rates with regulators and immediately change their rates. No approval is necessary. <\/p>\n

Guess which one Texas is.<\/p>\n

TDI, toughen up<\/p>\n

Texas must toughen up its regulatory powers. That\u2019s what people need. <\/p>\n

The challenge is you\u2019re going to have to make that happen through the Texas Legislature. You would have to lead this fight to make your department stronger.<\/p>\n

I give your predecessor Cassie Brown<\/a> credit for educating Texans on consumer issues. TDI, for instance, has amassed a catalogue of educational videos on how to shop. (Visit helpinsure.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The news release announcing Brown\u2019s departure after four years praised Brown for protecting consumers and maintaining a stable insurance market. She saved consumers, it says, \u201cmillions through rate reviews.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commissioner, think what you could do.<\/p>\n

Missing notices<\/p>\n

Let me give you a single example of insurance abuse that is easy to prevent. <\/p>\n

An East Texas man has sued his insurer American Economy Insurance Company for failing to notify its customers over rate increases of 10% or higher.<\/p>\n

A provision of the Texas Insurance Code is designed to inform consumers by mail of a large rate increase. Otherwise, a mortgage servicer pays the increase as part of the monthly mortgage escrow bill, which also includes property taxes. The consumer misses information about a large rate increase.<\/p>\n

American Economy is a subsidiary of Safeco, which is a subsidiary of Liberty Mutual. Company spokesperson Emma Bannen told The Watchdog, \u201cWe do not comment on specific customer claims or matters in litigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commissioner Crawford, TDI should have enforced that provision. Now it\u2019s a federal court case.<\/p>\n

Because of this lack of transparency, the lawsuit asserts, Texans overpaid. Ben Linyard<\/a>, who sued, watched as his premiums shot up 40% in two years \u2014without required notice. Same goes for thousands of other company customers, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

The notice is supposed to remind customers that they can shop competitively for a better deal.<\/p>\n

Not sharing news of the increase was deceptive, and the company should be fined.<\/p>\n

Texas has a denied claim problem<\/p>\n

What did you think of that report that came out about Texas\u2019 insurance claim failures?<\/p>\n

The report, from a group called Unlocking America\u2019s Future, states that Texas ranks third among states for the highest premiums paid. But here\u2019s the shocker: nearly half of Texas homeowners\u2019 claims are rejected.<\/p>\n

The report also stated that 10 Texas home insurance companies closed more than half of their claims without fulfilling them.<\/p>\n

Imagine that: insurance companies that don\u2019t want to provide insurance coverage.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a battle<\/p>\n

Commissioner, I realize that bringing this up makes me a target. In a letter to The Dallas Morning News, David Sampson, who heads American Property Casualty Insurance Association, charged that I used \u201cmisleading statistics to stir outrage.\u201d<\/p>\n

He wrote, \u201cClaims are sometimes closed because the amount of damage is below the deductible, or the damage is unrelated to the reported catastrophic event, or because the homeowner chooses not to make repairs.\u201d<\/p>\n

He called on Texas lawmakers to \u201cpass reasonable legal reforms that will limit jackpot jury awards in lawsuits.\u201d<\/p>\n

I find that goal chilling.<\/p>\n

Hearing from Texans<\/p>\n

Another critic, Charles (last name not given), commented on Dallasnews.com that my report on denied claims \u201cmisses the basics of economics.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lot more to this story, it is just not considered here,\u201d he continued. \u201cThe reader should wonder whether that is because the author did not want to take the time, or did look into it but found it didn\u2019t support the story he wanted to present.\u201d<\/p>\n

I say to Charles and others that I am certainly not an expert on the complexities of the insurance industry. But I am an expert when it comes to learning what Texans think. I\u2019ve received many complaints in recent years.<\/p>\n

The tilt against consumers is getting worse. <\/p>\n

Commissioner, you are the defensive wall against insurance abuse, against file and use, against lack of transparency, against abuse of denied claims.<\/p>\n

On behalf of Texas consumers, please lead the way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The following is an open letter from The Watchdog to new Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) Commissioner Amanda…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2349,27,29,293,28,10322],"class_list":["post-169666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-money","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-legislature","tag-texas-news","tag-watchdog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}