HB 902: Insurance; transparency and accountability in rates and rate regulation after enactment of tort reform law; provide

Georgia currently limits when insurance rates can be found excessive, inadequate, or unfairly discriminatory, and only triggers a state examination of an insurer's rate filing under specific conditions. This bill adds clear definitions of those terms to the law regulating insurance rates (O.C.G.A. Title 33, Chapter 9), presuming a rate increase is 'excessive' if it is 10 percent or more in a year or filed twice or more in 24 months. It expands when the Insurance Commissioner must examine an insurer, adds a required public hearing with subpoena power after any such examination, and shortens the time allowed to complete examinations from 90 to 45 days. The bill also requires the Commissioner and insurers to publish rate increase data on their websites starting July 1, 2026, going back to 2019 data. Separately, it extends the state's tort reform data collection program (created after Georgia's 2025 tort reform law) from ending in 2029 to ending in 2035, requires future reports to specifically address savings passed on to policyholders, and pushes the chapter's repeal date from 2030 to 2036. The law would take effect as soon as the Governor signs it.

• Adds legal definitions of 'excessive,' 'inadequate,' and 'unfairly discriminatory' insurance rates, presuming a rate hike of 10 percent or more in a year, or two or more filings in 24 months, is excessive.
• Requires the Insurance Commissioner to order a financial and market conduct examination whenever an insurer raises rates by 10 percent or more in a year or files for increases more than twice in 24 months, removing an existing waiver for increases under 25 percent.
• Shortens the deadline for the Commissioner to complete and certify a rate filing examination from 90 to 45 days, with a shorter possible extension.
• Adds a required public hearing within 30 days after any rate examination, giving the Commissioner power to subpoena witnesses and demand detailed actuarial and financial records.
• Requires the Department of Insurance and individual insurance companies to publish rate increase data on their websites starting July 1, 2026, covering data back to January 1, 2019.
• Extends the deadline for the state's tort reform data collection program from July 1, 2029 to July 1, 2035, and delays the automatic repeal of that program from 2030 to 2036.

Insurance companies licensed to sell coverage in Georgia, the Georgia Department of Insurance and the Insurance Commissioner, policyholders and consumers who buy home, auto, or business insurance, and General Assembly committees that oversee insurance and receive the Commissioner's reports.

Georgians who buy insurance would get more visibility into how much rates have risen and why, since insurers and the state would have to post rate-increase data online. Insurers facing rate hikes would face more frequent state examinations, public hearings, and document demands, and the state would track tort reform's effect on rates for six more years.

• Section 1 rewrites O.C.G.A. § 33-9-4 to define 'excessive,' 'inadequate,' and 'unfairly discriminatory' rates, with a presumption of excessiveness for large or frequent increases.
• Section 2 amends O.C.G.A. § 33-9-21(e) to lower the trigger for a mandatory examination, remove the waiver for smaller increases, add a required public hearing with subpoena and document-production powers, and shorten examination deadlines from 90/60 days to 45/45 days.
• Section 3 rewrites O.C.G.A. § 33-9-41 (previously reserved) to require the Commissioner and individual insurers to publish rate increase data online starting July 1, 2026, based on data from 2019 onward.
• Section 4 extends the tort reform data collection deadline in O.C.G.A. § 33-66-5 from July 1, 2029 to July 1, 2035.
• Section 5 amends O.C.G.A. § 33-66-7 to require the Commissioner's subsequent report to address savings or benefits from tort reform passed on to policyholders and the public, and to require publication of the report on the department's website and notice to the full General Assembly.
• Section 6 extends the repeal date of Chapter 66 (the tort reform data analysis chapter) from January 1, 2030 to January 1, 2036.
• Section 7 makes the Act effective immediately upon the Governor's signature or upon becoming law without signature.

1. 2026-01-12House Second Readers (House)
2. 2025-04-04House First Readers (House)
3. 2025-04-02House Hopper (House)

• Todd Jones (R, HD-025)Primary sponsor
• Carter Barrett (R, HD-024)
• Noel Williams (R, HD-148)
• Demetrius Douglas (D, HD-078)
• Trey Kelley (R, HD-016)

• insurance rates
• tort reform
• insurance regulation
• consumer protection
• Georgia Department of Insurance