Louisiana Senator Jay Luneau has filed a bill seeking increased fairness in how auto insurance rates are determined, by prohibiting insurers from using policyholders’ genders as a factor in setting rates.
The bill, SB11, was filed for the regular legislative session.
“If we’re being fair with everybody, let everybody pay the rates they should be paying. And I think that’s the best thing to do,” Luneau said. “Why are we discriminating against women in Louisiana when it comes to automobile insurance rates, when there are actuarial studies that show that women tend to get less speeding tickets than men they need, they tend to be involved in less fatal accidents than men.”
The senator mentioned an instance a few years ago of an insurance actuary that priced insurance for two theoretical individuals by the name of Chris, with the same address and the same car. It was found that the female Chris paid more for auto insurance than the male Chris. Female Chris continued to have the pricier insurance even after male Chris was given a DUI record.
BRProud.com reported that Luneau had previously proposed the bill in 2020, but it did not pass as it faced opposition from both insurance companies and the state insurance commissioner.
“My suggestion would be if they don’t have a legitimate reason to go up on their rates like they were being actuarially sound before with men, why should they go up now?” the senator said.
Luneau said that insurers claimed that ending the rate-setting practice would raise rates for men, but he wants to know why they use gender as a factor.
“We’ve not had anybody from the insurance industry come to committee and testify and tell us why they’re doing that. We’ve had a lot of lobbyists who work for the insurance folks come in and say, ‘Oh, we don’t know,’” the senator stated.
Other states have passed similar bills in the past, such as California, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Montana. California, in particular, was the most recent addition to the list, with the restriction implemented in 2019.
