In January, Rhode Island will join several other states in banning auto insurance companies from treating widows and widowers differently than married people.
The new law covers insurance contracts created, issued, or renewed on or after January 1, 2025.
“This is good legislation,” Lou Tedeschi of the Southern New England Independent Auto Dealers Association said in an email to Autobody News. “Insurance companies must not discriminate in relation to age or marital status.”
State law already prohibits companies from penalizing insured drivers who are 65 years of age or older solely because of their age, and it also prohibits companies from penalizing insured drivers who are 65 years of age or older solely because of their age. Not updating is prohibited. S.2269, signed by Democratic Gov. Dan McKee on May 31, makes Rhode Island one of at least six states to ban discriminatory auto insurance coverage for widowers. .
Delaware, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Massachusetts, and Maryland currently prohibit this practice.
The justice advocacy group Texas Appleseed reportedly called for Texas to follow suit in August, according to Houston Fox 26. The Consumer Federation of America (CFA) called for Ohio to follow suit as early as September 2022, according to the Akron (OH) Beacon Journal.
According to a press release from the senator’s office, the bill’s sponsor, Rhode Island Senate Majority Leader Valarie Lawson, a Democrat, sought to address the apparent disparity in insurance treatment for widows through widowed voters. He said he noticed it.
A voter’s auto insurance company gave her “immediate notice” that her auto insurance would increase by $450 per year after she notified the company of her husband’s death.
“For anyone who has experienced a loss, the grieving process is emotionally taxing, coupled with the practical challenges, expenses and uncertainty of a major life change,” Lawson said in a statement. I know how devastating it is to deal with.” “It is unnecessary and unfair to add further expense to the lives of people mourning their loved ones.”
A 2015 Consumer Federation of America (CFA) study found that four of the six largest insurance companies surveyed (GEICO, Farmers, Progressive, and Liberty Mutual) had state-mandated widow liability coverage. The compensation rate was increased by an average of 20%.
The same study found that Nationwide raised rates for widows “from time to time” and that State Farm did not adjust rates based on marital status.
This study extracts minimum liability insurance estimates across 10 U.S. cities, holding constant all vehicle, driver, and insurance characteristics except marital status.
The study found that Farmers, Progressive, Nationwide, and Liberty Mutual “always” charge the same rates to single, separated, and divorced drivers and “almost always” charge annual premiums less than they charge married drivers. It was also expensive.
Democratic Rep. Arthur Handy, the bill’s sponsor in the Rhode Island House, said he experienced one of these increases firsthand after his wife passed away in 2021.
“Marital status is one of the many factors that insurance companies consider when determining the risk to insure a driver. However, losing a spouse does not create a significant risk for a person. “This is not the case,” Handy said in a statement. “Not only is it baseless, it’s just callous to add premiums to the burden of people who are grieving their spouses.”
