Auto insurance minimums in Louisiana
Louisiana requires drivers to carry auto liability insurance, and the minimum limits are 15/30/25. Written out, that is $15,000 of bodily injury liability per person, $30,000 of bodily injury liability per accident, and $25,000 of property damage liability per accident, under La. R.S. 32:900. The three numbers are always in that order, and they are the legal floor, not a coverage recommendation: a serious crash can produce losses far above the minimum, and the minimum is the most the insurer will pay, not the most the crash will cost.
Louisiana's minimums are among the lowest in the country: $15,000 per person and $30,000 per accident for bodily injury, against the most common pattern of $25,000 and $50,000. Only the property damage figure, $25,000, matches the common pattern. The bodily injury figures have stood since 1 January 2010, and a single emergency-room visit can use up the $15,000 per-person limit. The gap between the minimum and the cost of a serious crash is the reason the state page matters more here than in a state with higher minimums.
The minimums are for private passenger vehicles, and they are not the only cover the state requires. Louisiana requires no personal injury protection and no medical payments cover. Uninsured and underinsured motorist cover is included in every policy unless the named insured rejects it, selects lower limits, or selects economic-only coverage in writing on a form prescribed by the Commissioner, under La. R.S. 22:1295 — and uninsured motorist limits are not less than the policy's bodily injury limits, with the floor at the 15/30/25 minimums. Louisiana does use SR-22 filings: after a reinstatement the insurer files one with the Office of Motor Vehicles, typically for three years, and a lapse in cover re-suspends the licence and restarts the clock. Drivers declined by two or more standard insurers can turn to the Louisiana Automobile Insurance Plan. Lenders and leasing companies require more again: a financed or leased car usually has to carry collision and comprehensive cover, and often higher liability limits, because the lender's interest in the car has to be protected. A driver who buys only the state minimum and skips collision cover has no cover for their own car at all, and the state minimum does not change that.
Fault, PIP and uninsured motorist cover in Louisiana
Louisiana is an at-fault state, and its fault rule changed on 1 January 2026. Under the modified comparative fault rule in La. C.C. art. 2323, as amended by House Bill 431 of 2025, a driver who is 51% or more at fault recovers nothing, and a driver 50% or less at fault recovers with the award reduced by their share of fault. Pure comparative fault — where even a driver mostly at fault could recover a reduced share — applies only to accidents before 1 January 2026. There is no PIP requirement in Louisiana, so no first-party injury cover pays first while fault is decided.
Louisiana also has a rule with no equivalent in most states: No Pay, No Play, in La. R.S. 32:866. An uninsured driver cannot recover the first $100,000 of bodily injury damages and the first $100,000 of property damage, even when the other driver was at fault. Act 16 of 2025 raised them from $15,000 and $25,000, effective 1 August 2025. Exceptions include a DWI conviction for the at-fault driver, an intentional crash, a hit-and-run, or a felony. Driving uninsured in Louisiana does not only risk a fine and a suspended licence: it removes the first $100,000 of any recovery after a crash that was not your fault. The filing period for injury claims is now two years for accidents on or after 1 July 2024, under La. C.C. art. 3493.1, where it was one year before.
Uninsured and underinsured motorist cover is the protection against the other driver's lack of cover, and its position in Louisiana is: it is included in every policy unless the named insured rejects it, selects lower limits, or selects economic-only coverage in writing on a form prescribed by the Commissioner, and its limits are not less than the policy's bodily injury limits. A driver who is hit by an uninsured driver claims on their own uninsured motorist cover, and a driver hit by a driver whose limits are too low claims on underinsured motorist cover. The practical point is the same in every state: the minimum liability limits say what the other driver must carry, and uninsured motorist cover says what happens when they do not carry it — and the two together decide whether a crash with an uninsured driver leaves you paying out of pocket.
No-fault is the system most often confused with the minimums, and it is worth separating the two. The minimums say how much liability cover you must carry. No-fault says who pays for injuries after a crash. Louisiana is an at-fault state, so the driver who caused the crash pays for the other driver's injuries, and there is no PIP paying first while fault is decided, and no threshold gates lawsuits for pain and suffering. Since 1 January 2026 a driver 51% or more at fault recovers nothing at all. Damage to cars is still handled by fault, as in every state. The site's no-fault guide explains the twelve no-fault states, the choice states, and the thresholds that limit lawsuits for pain and suffering. Read the page for your own state before relying on the general description, because the general description is a map and the state page is the road.
Home insurance in Louisiana
No state law in Louisiana requires a homeowner to carry homeowners insurance. The requirement, where it exists, comes from the lender: a mortgage lender almost always requires homeowners cover as a condition of the loan, and the lender sets the dwelling limit it will accept. A homeowner without a mortgage is not legally required to insure the house, but an uninsured house is an uninsured asset — a fire, a storm or a burst pipe can destroy the largest asset most people own, and there is no cover to rebuild it. On the Louisiana coast the last resort is the Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, the insurer of last resort for homes private insurers will not cover, with separate Coastal and FAIR plans. The site's guide to whether homeowners insurance is required explains the lender position in full.
A standard homeowners policy in Louisiana has the same six parts as everywhere in the country: dwelling, other structures, personal property, loss of use, personal liability and medical payments, as the National Association of Insurance Commissioners describes them. The dwelling limit is set by the estimated rebuild cost, not the market value, and the site's homeowners cost calculator works that figure out from the living area and a rebuild cost per square foot. Flood and earthquake are excluded from a standard policy and need separate cover — flood through the National Flood Insurance Program or a private flood insurer, earthquake through a separate earthquake policy — and the site's flood and earthquake guides explain the routes. Your flood zone is an address-level fact, not a state-level one, so check the zone for the address, not for the state.
The deductible deserves the same attention in Louisiana as anywhere else. The minimum deductible offered by most insurers is $500 or $1,000, according to the Insurance Information Institute, and for wind, hail and hurricane damage the deductible is often a percentage of the home's insured value, typically 1% to 5% according to the III. On a home insured for $300,000, a 2% wind and hail deductible is $6,000. The site's tornado and hail guides explain the percentage deductible and the cosmetic-damage rule in full, and the declarations page should show both deductibles — the flat all-other-perils amount and the percentage wind and hail amount — before the policy is bought.
Health insurance in Louisiana
Health cover in Louisiana runs through the marketplace: Louisiana residents enroll in marketplace cover through HealthCare.gov. Enroll through HealthCare.gov for marketplace cover and premium tax credits. Louisiana runs no state marketplace of its own.
Medicaid in Louisiana: Louisiana has expanded Medicaid since 1 July 2016, so adults can qualify on income up to 138% of the poverty level. Because Louisiana expanded Medicaid in 2016, the coverage gap that exists in non-expansion states does not apply here.
Short-term health insurance in Louisiana: Short-term health plans are sold in Louisiana, with a maximum initial term of 364 days and up to 36 months in total, and no state duration limit of its own. A Louisianan who needs cover for a gap should still check the marketplace first. The site's short-term hub guide explains the federal duration rule, the August 2025 pause on enforcing it, and the alternatives that cover more.
The regulator, complaints and how to check a quote
Insurance in Louisiana is regulated by the Louisiana Department of Insurance. The regulator licenses insurers, approves the rating plans that set premiums and discounts, and handles complaints when an insurer's conduct is in question. If a claim is denied or underpaid, complain to the regulator with the policy, the declarations page and the claim correspondence in hand, because the regulator decides on the record.
Before buying any policy in Louisiana, run the checks in this order. First, the licence: is the insurer licensed in Louisiana, under the name on the policy. Second, the cover: do the limits match the need — the auto minimums above are the floor, not the recommendation, and the home dwelling limit should match the rebuild cost. Third, the settlement method and the exclusions: is the roof settled at replacement cost or actual cash value, is flood covered or excluded. Fourth, the deductible: what is the flat deductible, is there a percentage wind and hail deductible, and can you pay it from savings on the day of a loss. Fifth, the price: compare like with like, on identical limits, identical deductibles and identical cover types, and compare the total cost, not the premium alone.
Keep the policy, the declarations page, the insurer's claims number, and the regulator's contact details together where you can reach them after a loss. The site's editorial policy explains how this site reviews its guides, and the contact page gives the address for questions about the site itself — but for a question about a policy, the insurer and the regulator are the authorities, not this site.
Worked example
Consider an ILLUSTRATIVE driver in Louisiana buying a first policy. She starts with the state minimums — 15/30/25 — and asks whether they are enough: a serious crash can produce medical bills far above the $15,000 per-person limit and property damage above the $25,000 limit, so she compares quotes at higher limits as well as at the minimum, on identical deductibles. She reads the fault section above and notes that there is no PIP paying first while fault is decided, that a driver 51% or more at fault now recovers nothing, and that driving uninsured would cost her the first $100,000 of any recovery even after a crash that was not her fault. She checks the home policy against the rebuild cost and reads both deductibles on the declarations page. She checks the health position — the marketplace route, the Medicaid position, and whether a short-term plan is even sold in Louisiana — before assuming that a short-term plan is an option. The example's value is the method, not any figure in it: no premium is stated, because premiums vary by insurer and by driver. What it shows is that the state rules are the starting point for every quote, and a quote judged against another state's rules is a quote misjudged.