In January, Rhode Island will join a handful of other states that ban car insurance companies from treating widows and widowers differently that married people.
The new law will cover policies written, delivered or renewed on or after Jan. 1, 2025.
“It is good legislation,” said Lou Tedeschi of the Southern New England Independent Automobile Dealers Association in an email to Autobody News. “Insurance companies should not be able to discriminate against anything that has to do with age or marital status.”
State law already prohibits companies from penalizing any insured drivers aged 65 and older solely because of age, and bans companies from failing to renew agreements solely because the covered person is 65 years or older. Signed into law by Democratic Gov. Dan McKee on May 31, S. 2269 will make Rhode Island one of at least six total states that ban discriminatory car insurance practices against widowed persons.
Delaware, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Massachusetts and Maryland currently ban the practice.
Texas Appleseed, a justice advocacy group, in August reportedly called for its state to follow suit, according to Houston Fox 26. The Consumer Federation of America (CFA) as recently as September 2022 called for Ohio to follow suit, according to the Akron (OH) Beacon Journal.
The bill’s sponsor, Rhode Island Senate Majority Whip Valarie Lawson, a Democrat, became aware of the apparent disparate insurance treatment for widows through a constituent whose husband died, according to a press release from the senator’s office.
The constituent’s car insurance company “quickly notified” her that her car insurance would increase by $450 a year after informing the company of her husband’s death.
“Everyone who has experienced loss knows how devastating it is to deal with the practical matters and expenses and the uncertainly of a major life change on top of the heavy emotional toll of the grieving process,” Lawson said in a statement. “Adding an additional expense to the lives of those mourning a loved one is unnecessary and unfair.”
A 2015 Consumer Federation of America (CFA) study found that four of six reviewed major insurers -- GEICO, Farmers, Progressive and Liberty Mutual -- raised rates on state-mandated liability coverage for widows by an average of 20%.
The same study found that Nationwide “sometimes” increased rates for widows, and that State Farm did not adjust its rates because of marital status.
The research pulled quotes for minimum liability insurance across 10 U.S. cities, holding constant all car, driver and insurance characteristics except for marital status.
The review found that Farmers, Progressive, Nationwide and Liberty Mutual “always” charged single, separated and divorced drivers the same price, with the annual premium “almost always” higher than the premium it charged married people.
The legislation’s Rhode Island House sponsor, Democratic Rep. Arthur Handy, said he experienced one of those price hikes firsthand after his wife passed away in 2021.
“Marital status is one of many, many factors insurance companies weigh when they decide what their risk is to insure a driver. But a person doesn’t become a bigger risk as a result of losing their spouse,” Handy said in a statement. “Besides being baseless, it’s just callous to add higher insurance rates to the heavy burdens of those who are grieving their spouses.”
Brian Bradley