On Jan 29th, Georgia Democratic House Caucus Chair Tanya Miller (HD-62) and Senator Josh McLaurin (SD-14) unpacked how “tort reform,” the centerpiece of Governor Brian Kemp and Georgia Republicans’ 2025 agenda, prioritizes corporate profits over the health and wellbeing of Georgians. Miller and McLaurin pointed out that by shielding insurance giants from accountability when they harm consumers, Kemp is simply helping his corporate backers keep more profit in their pockets at the expense of everyday Georgians. 

While Kemp is working for corporate interests, Georgia Democrats are working for the people by pushing to fully expand Medicaid, provide healthy school lunches, and more.

Watch and download a recording of the press call here.

“Most Georgians have never heard of a tort before, so here is what you need to know: this is a big business and corporate relief first; Georgians last agenda,” said Miller. “The truth is, we’re just being asked to take the insurance industry’s word for it that so-called frivolous lawsuits drive up rates.‘Tort reform’ means keeping Georgians from seeking justice in court against insurance giants when those corporations harm consumers. Research shows taking away citizens’ rights to seek justice from corporations that harm them does not actually lower insurance premiums. States with strict tort reform laws haven’t seen significant decreases in premiums—in fact, some have seen rates go up.”

“’Tort reform’ is a giveaway to the big insurance companies that Brian Kemp has made his top legislative agenda item for 2025 – so much so that he says, if we don’t get it done on the terms that the insurance companies want, he’s going to call a special session just to make sure that they get what they want,” said McLaurin. “Insurance companies are making billions of dollars of profit in Georgia and nationwide, and they are threatening to leave the state if they don’t make as much profit as they want. They have said that people getting compensated for their injuries when they rightfully deserve it is at the root of all of these premium increases. Brian Kemp is either lying or being lied to about how and why these premiums have increased and what to do about it.”

Four decades of data compiled by the NYU’s Center for Democracy and Justice have disproven Kemp’s claim that tort reform would lower premiums as “insurance premiums ‘do not fall in parallel with costs’ [and] caps lead to ‘sustained supranormal profits.’”

Kemp’s push for tort reform is being aided by an ad barrage by Competitive Georgia, a newly formed dark-money group affiliated with the far-right Federalist Society. According to Axios, Competitive Georgia’s recent ad blitz appears to be working as two recent swing-voter focus groups parroted lines from their ads, despite nobody knowing what “tort reform” meant and most “[having] no clue what a ‘tort’ is.”