CPA News Releases, Advisories, and Editorials

Washington, DC — Legislators in five states — California, Illinois, Georgia, New Mexico and Washington — will introduce bills today to stop insurance discrimination against victims of domestic violence. Insurance companies use medical reports, medical databases, public court documents and credit reports to identify victims of domestic violence, then deny, limit, or set charges based on victims’ increased risk.

The simultaneous introduction is being coordinated by the Center for Policy Alternatives (CPA), a non-partisan public policy and leadership development center which works across the fifty states to promote policies that strengthen families and communities.

Linda Tarr-Whelan, President and CEO of CPA, calls the five-state initiative “an innovative approach by women legislators across the country to raise visibility and take action to correct an unacceptable practice. As states address health care and insurance reforms, we must ensure that no one — let alone a victim of domestic violence — suffers this type of outrageous discrimination.”

Tarr-Whelan notes that between 2 and 4 four million women a year are subjected to physical violence each year, according to reports of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Women subjected to violence by intimates or partners account for 30 percent of visits by women to emergency rooms and 1.4 million doctor visits each year.

“Insurers who are discriminating against domestic violence victims must be stopped,” said Tarr-Whelan, “and if they won’t stop on moral grounds — that it’s wrong to victimize battered women — civil and criminal penalties may get their attention.”

Eight of the sixteen largest insurers in the country were using domestic violence as a factor in deciding whether to issue insurance and how much to charge for it in 1994 according to a recent report compiled by the Women’s Law Project and the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence. The same report cites 1995 surveys of insurers by the state insurance commissioners in Pennsylvania and Kansas in which one quarter of the respondents acknowledged use of domestic violence as an underwriting criterion. Half of the insurers responding to a 1996 Illinois Department of Insurance survey reported favoring use of such criteria.

The legislation prohibits insurers from:

• denying a claim based on domestic violence
  
• requesting or disclosing personal information about domestic violence
  
• denying current coverage or renewal of coverage
  
• restricting coverage or charging higher premiums
  
• terminating coverage granted through the abuser’s insurance plan

Civil penalties and fines may be imposed on insurers who violate the law. In Illinois and New Mexico, the legislation also provides for criminal penalties for willful discrimination against a victim.

Domestic violence insurance reform measures are being introduced on January 30, 1997 by:

Assemblywoman Grace Napalitano of California (916) 445-0965

Senator Connie Stokes of Georgia (404) 593-3999

Representative Carol Ronen of Illinois (773) 769-1717

Representative Mimi Stewart of New Mexico (505) 986-4211

Representative Cathy Wolfe of Washington (360) 786-7992

(primary sponsor)

Representative Dawn Mason (360) 786-7944

(co-sponsor)

Representative Eileen Cody (360) 786-7978

(co-sponsor)