AUSTIN – Members of a House-Senate committee said Tuesday that they are growing impatient with the fact that Texas homeowners pay the highest insurance rates in the nation year after year.

Despite assurances from state Insurance Commissioner Mike Geeslin that the situation is improving, several members of the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission said the Legislature should consider a new round of insurance reforms next year to make the market more competitive and bring rates down.

Sen. Kim Brimer, R-Fort Worth, said insurers have recorded five straight years of solid profits since lawmakers passed a major insurance reform law in 2003 that was supposed to stabilize the market and reverse a series of record rate hikes.

"These profits indicate to me that insurance companies are not sharing with their customers the cost savings they received" under the law, Mr. Brimer said, citing in particular the three biggest insurers – State Farm, Allstate and Farmers – for increasing their rates in recent months.

"This is a fat cat on the prowl that we need to rein in," he told Mr. Geeslin. "We are going to give you the tools you need, and you can fix the wreck."

Sen. Juan Hinojosa, D-McAllen, said that while Texas homeowners continue to pay the highest rates in the nation, insurance companies have paid out just 43 percent of premiums over the last five years to cover losses in the state – well under the national average of 60 percent and the break-even point of about 65 percent.

"Insurance companies are not responding to the market, and homeowners are being gouged," he said. "Something is not right."

Mr. Geeslin said his figures show that homeowner rates have decreased 6 percent in the last five years. He also noted that 29 insurance companies have entered the Texas market during that period.

"The market has improved better than what people thought it would back in 2003," he asserted.

But he also acknowledged that protracted legal fights with some companies have hurt efforts to bring rate relief to consumers, and he also cited the tightening insurance market along the Texas coast.

Industry spokesman Beaman Floyd said the new insurance regulation scheme approved by lawmakers – the so-called "file and use" system – needs more time to work. That system gave companies more freedom in setting rates.

Mr. Floyd, of the Texas Coalition for Affordable Insurance Solutions, also contended that in most cases, premiums have stabilized or dropped in Texas in recent years even as home values increased.

The sunset commission – which includes five senators and five House members – will make recommendations to the 2009 Legislature on the Texas Department of Insurance and changes in state insurance laws.

Rate comparisons by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners indicate Texas has the highest homeowner rates in the country.