An Act Providing Equitable Coverage in Disability Insurance

Representatives Ellen Story, Denise Provost, Denise Andrews, Cory Atkins, Tricia Farley-Bouvier, Kay Khan, Alice Wolf, Carolyn Dykema, Carl Sciortino, Jonathan Hecht, Gailanne Cariddi, Jason Lewis - led by Representative Ruth Balser testified today in support of H. 1173, An Act Providing Equitable Coverage in Disability

To: Members of the Joint Committee on Financial Services

From: Representative Cory Atkins

Date: January 24, 2012

Re: H. 1173, An Act Providing Equitable Coverage in Disability Insurance

I write today in support of H. 1173, An Act Providing Equitable Coverage in Disability Insurance.

Since our Commonwealth adopted the 1976 Equal Right Amendment, legislators have worked to ensure all insurance policies are gender neutral including health insurance, automobile insurance, homeowners’ insurance, and annuity policies. In addition, Workers Compensation Insurance is gender neutral.

Today, private disability insurance is still able to use gender as an underwriting criterion which allows these state-regulated disability policies to assign different premiums for men and women with the same job classification.

Furthermore, disability policies that have been filed with the Division of Insurance show women paying up to 75 percent more than men regardless of the insurance company, whether long-term or short-term insurance, the duration of benefits, the occupation class, or the age of the policy holder.

I thank the committee for its time and consideration of these matters, and I ask the members to report this bill favorably out of committee in a timely and efficient manner.