The life insurance industry appears to be supporting a proposed law ending discrimination against people who are going places.
Some life insurance companies are accused of refusing to issue policies or of charging different rates for policies based on past or future travel by policy-holders—and they don’t do it for rational, actuarially sound reasons. Critics say it’s done arbitrarily, sometimes based on a State Department watch list that might not be a measure of danger to travelers.
Lobbyist Harvey Tettlebaum with the Anti-Defamation League says practices not based on actuarially sound calculations are discriminatory. He notes the same practice is not used for domestic travel where, he says, there are many places much more dangerous than some foreign countries on the State Department watch list.
The sponsor of the bill, Senator Scott Rupp of Wentzville, has told a Senate Committee he’s worked with the life insurance industry in writing the bill that requires policies to be issued and rates to be determined based on real numbers, not arbitrary unfavorable-nation lists. A lobbyist for the industry has endorsed the bill.
Download Bob Priddy’s story (:61 mp3)
