If you want to understand how insurance laws really get made, Oklahoma just handed the rest of the country a case study.

Earlier this month, Oklahoma Watch published a piece asking a question that should make every policyholder uneasy: “Is State Farm writing Oklahoma insurance law?” 1 That question was not rhetorical. It arose after lawmakers openly acknowledged that a proposed bill weakening consumer protections was, in fact, a “State Farm request bill.”

The legislation in question, Senate Bill 726, would have stripped away a long-standing enforcement mechanism that penalizes insurers for delaying payment of property insurance claims. In plain English, the bill would have made it cheaper for insurers to slow-walk claims while homeowners wait, struggle, and borrow against their futures to rebuild. It’s been introduced at a time when Oklahomans are already facing some of the highest homeowners insurance premiums in the nation.

What makes this so revealing is not just that an insurer proposed the bill, but that some legislators appeared surprised when that fact was openly discussed on the House floor. One lawmaker asked the obvious question: Why would the Legislature remove the only meaningful consequence for late payment when policyholders are already suffering? That question should have been asked much earlier. Others, however, carried the bill forward anyway, seemingly comfortable advancing language that clearly benefited one of the largest insurers in the country.

This is how influence actually works. It is rarely dramatic. It shows up as “technical fixes,” “clarifications,” or “industry requests.” Insurance trade groups and major carriers employ seasoned lobbyists who know how to frame these changes as neutral, even helpful. By the time a bill reaches the floor, the most consequential policy decisions have already been made behind closed doors.

Oklahoma Watch deserves credit for pulling back that curtain. Most states do not have a newsroom willing or able to do that kind of deep dive. The result is that similar bills quietly move through legislatures across the country with little scrutiny. The public rarely hears about them unless something goes wrong later, when claims are delayed, denied, or underpaid, and homeowners are told the law no longer helps them.

What makes this particularly troubling is the broader context. Oklahoma’s Attorney General has already taken action against State Farm over allegations of systemic claim-handling abuses related to hail losses. At the same time, lawmakers were being asked to weaken the very statutory provisions that discourage delay and gamesmanship in claims handling. That contradiction should trouble anyone who believes insurance is supposed to be a promise, not a profit strategy.

This is not about demonizing our lawmakers. Some are clearly being played. Others, however, know exactly what they are doing and rely on complexity and public disengagement to move the insurers’ ball down the field. The system works best for insurers when the public is not paying attention.

That is why this story matters beyond Oklahoma. Every state needs an Oklahoma Watch. Every state needs journalists who ask who wrote the bill, who benefits from it, and who bears the risk when it becomes law. Until that happens, policyholders, public adjusters, and insurance restoration contractors will keep discovering too late that the rules changed while no one was looking.

Oklahoma’s experience is a warning. The only question is whether other states are listening and what we can do about it.

For me, I am speaking on behalf of the American Policyholders Association next Wednesday at the SRC Summit, where I will highlight “the New Playbook” that the insurance lobby is using against contractors. Insurance restoration contractors are in the crosshairs of the insurance industry. If you are a roofer or contractor involved in insurance claims, this is an important message for you, one that Doug Quinn and the APA are raising and taking on.

On February 23, I will be at a PCAPIA event with Amy Bach of United Policyholders speaking about new California insurance laws. I will then join public adjusters as we walk the halls of the California legislature about issues facing policyholders. The plight of wildfire victims and their inability to get paid full benefits quickly will certainly be a topic of discussion.

I know these volunteer actions are minuscule compared to the coordinated army of full-time lobbyists the insurance lobby employs. But if not us, who? Every action supporting policyholder rights is important.

Thought For The Day

“Power is not revealed by striking hard or often, but by striking true.”
 — Honoré de Balzac

1 J.C. Hallman. “Lawmakers Wonder if State Farm is Writing Oklahoma Insurance Law.” Oklahoma Watch (Feb. 2, 2026). Available online at https://oklahomawatch.org/2026/02/02/lawmakers-wonder-if-state-farm-is-writing-oklahoma-insurance-law/