Op-Ed: Consumers Need Protection from Insurance Company Discrimination

By Dusty Hoerler, active member of Plumbers and Pipefitters Union Local 32 and the Statewide Poverty Action Network.

We need economic recovery and we need it now. Unemployed workers like me, victims of the economic collapse brought on by large banks and the mortgage crisis need our state legislators to make it a priority to get our economy going again.

I think a lot of people feel like I do. More and more of us are getting frustrated with politicians who do not seem to understand the toll this recession is taking on families like mine. Ours are families that have been supported by people who work hard all day to earn a paycheck, and who are now seeing their hours cut or have been laid off.

So I was hopeful when I heard about a bill proposed by our Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler that would keep insurance companies from jacking up our car and homeowner premiums because of things that have nothing to do with how I drive my car or care for my house.

I bet you think that your car insurance rates are based solely on the value of your car and on your driving record. Well, you’re wrong. Insurance companies can use your personal financial information like your credit score or your employment status to set rates. This is unfair. Why should the fact that I lost my job allow them to gouge me with higher insurance costs?

Thank goodness the Insurance Commissioner brought this issue before the State Legislature. It would not only protect all of us with car insurance but all of us who are homeowners as well. With this tough economy, many homeowners are already fearful of losing their homes. They’ve already tightened their family budget to make mortgage payments. So when insurance companies that provide homeowners insurance are raising rates they better have a good reason. But they don’t. Sometimes they are allowed to charge homeowners more for reasons that have nothing to do with how I treat my private property. For example, they are allowed to raise my rates because I did not have the opportunity to go to college.

Who gives these insurance companies the right to judge me? Well I guess our weak consumer protection laws. So that is why we need our representatives in Olympia to ban the use of credit scores, income levels and education in setting auto and homeowners insurance premiums. Senate Bill 6252 would do this. It is simple enough, does not cost the state anything, no and let’s face it the only ones opposed are insurance companies.

I want to do my part to get the economy going and that means getting out and finding work. To do this I need a car and I understand why everyone else on the road should have insurance. What I also need is for lawmakers to do what they are able to do to get the economy going. That’s a tall order, but one simple thing they can do for sure is to provide fair and reasonable protections like SB 6252.

I feel strongly about this issue. That’s why I took a day and went down to our state capitol last month and shared my story with legislators. That is why I am sharing it with you today. I hope that you will join me in calling on your state lawmaker to remember where they come from and who they are elected to represent. Not insurance companies, but people like you and me.