For Immediate Release
September 29, 2026
Ballay: Congress Must Fix a Flood Insurance System That Is Pricing Families Out of Protection
Louisiana 2nd District candidate says accurate risk pricing and affordable coverage should not be mutually exclusive
NEW ORLEANS, LA — Lisa Ballay, a nurse with more than twenty-five years in healthcare and the Libertarian candidate for Congress in Louisiana’s 2nd Congressional District, is calling on Congress to address the growing affordability crisis in the National Flood Insurance Program as new reporting shows that rising premiums are contributing to fewer Americans maintaining flood coverage.
An Associated Press investigation published Tuesday found that the number of federal flood insurance policies nationwide has declined by roughly 500,000 over the past five years while the typical annual premium has risen approximately 90 percent, to about $1,100. The investigation specifically identified parts of southern Louisiana among areas where substantial flood risk overlaps with inadequate insurance coverage.
“In South Louisiana, flood insurance isn’t an abstract federal program. It can determine whether a family can afford to remain in its home. A program designed to protect people from financial catastrophe isn’t working if the people who need that protection can no longer afford it.”
Lisa Ballay
FEMA’s Risk Rating 2.0 was designed to price individual properties according to their actual flood risk. The Government Accountability Office found that the methodology substantially improves ratemaking by aligning premiums with the flood risk of individual properties — but the resulting increases have also highlighted a fundamental affordability problem within the program.
Ballay said simply returning to artificially low premiums is not the answer.
“Taxpayers shouldn’t be asked to pretend risk doesn’t exist, and homeowners shouldn’t be given a false picture of what their actual flood risk is. But accurate risk information does not require us to accept a system that prices families out of coverage.”
Lisa Ballay
Ballay said Congress should pursue comprehensive reform of the National Flood Insurance Program that makes flood risk transparent, rewards homeowners and communities that invest in mitigation, improves outdated flood-risk information, encourages competition from private insurers where appropriate, and provides targeted assistance so economically vulnerable families in genuinely high-risk areas can maintain coverage.
“The goal should be straightforward: tell people the truth about their risk, give them meaningful ways to reduce that risk, and make sure the insurance system doesn’t punish them for doing so.”
Lisa Ballay
The affordability problem has consequences beyond individual homeowners. When uninsured properties flood, families can face devastating losses while taxpayers ultimately bear substantial disaster-recovery costs.
FEMA has acknowledged that the National Flood Insurance Program faces competing mandates to remain affordable, financially sound, broadly available and reflective of actual risk. The agency has said addressing affordability ultimately requires congressional action.
“Washington has spent years arguing over flood insurance while Louisiana homeowners keep getting the bill. Congress doesn’t need another temporary patch. It needs to address the underlying problem.”
Lisa Ballay
Ballay said flood insurance reform should be treated as a particularly urgent issue for Louisiana’s congressional delegation.
“People in Louisiana understand flood risk better than almost anyone in America. They shouldn’t have to choose between going without protection and paying a premium they cannot afford. We can protect taxpayers, price risk honestly and still make coverage attainable. Congress needs to do the work.”
Lisa Ballay
Sources
Associated Press, analysis of National Flood Insurance Program data, published September 29, 2026 —
apnews.com
U.S. Government Accountability Office,
Flood Insurance: FEMA’s New Rate-Setting Methodology Improves Actuarial Soundness but Highlights Need for Broader Program Reform (GAO-23-105977) —
gao.gov
###
For Immediate Release
August 29, 2026
Lisa Ballay: Charity Hospital’s Next Chapter Should Put Patients, Innovation and New Orleans First
NEW ORLEANS — As New Orleans marks 21 years since Hurricane Katrina and renewed attention focuses on the planned transformation of the former Charity Hospital, Lisa Ballay — a nurse with more than twenty-five years in healthcare and the Libertarian candidate for Congress in Louisiana’s 2nd Congressional District — said the project represents an opportunity to strengthen New Orleans as a center for healthcare innovation while remembering the patients and healthcare workers who made Charity an institution.
Tulane University announced in June that it had signed an agreement transitioning the university into an ownership role and lead developer of the project. Plans call for more than 650,000 square feet of the former hospital to be devoted to Tulane education, health, research and innovation initiatives as part of an approximately $500 million redevelopment.
“Charity Hospital represents an extraordinary part of New Orleans’ healthcare history. Seeing this building brought back to productive life is exciting, but what matters most is what happens inside it.”
Lisa Ballay
Ballay said the redevelopment presents an opportunity for New Orleans to attract physicians, researchers, entrepreneurs and healthcare companies while creating an environment in which medical innovation can reach patients more efficiently.
“We should be asking how we make New Orleans one of the easiest places in America to develop better healthcare — not how many additional layers of bureaucracy we can put between an idea and the patient who could benefit from it.”
Lisa Ballay
Drawing on more than two decades working in healthcare, Ballay said her experience has convinced her that spending more money and adding more administrative requirements do not automatically produce better care.
“Patients experience healthcare differently from the institutions that administer it. They experience the waiting, the paperwork, the insurance battles, the cost and the difficulty finding the right care. Those are the problems policymakers should be trying to solve.”
Lisa Ballay
Ballay said that, if elected to Congress, she would advocate for reducing unnecessary federal healthcare bureaucracy while demanding transparency and accountability whenever federal taxpayer dollars are involved.
“Government has an important responsibility to protect patients and taxpayers. It doesn’t need to manage every decision made by a physician, researcher, hospital or patient.”
Lisa Ballay
Ballay is the Libertarian candidate for Louisiana’s 2nd Congressional District in the November 3, 2026 election.
Sources
Tulane University, “Tulane announces major milestone in planned transformation of former Charity Hospital building,” June 23, 2026 —
news.tulane.edu
###