Linda Gorman, Director of the Independence Institute‘s Health Care Policy Center explains why Colorado House Bill 1008 is a bad idea:
House Bill 1008 would make it illegal in Colorado for insurance companies selling accident, sickness, or health insurance to charge men and women different prices for the same policy. It is a part of this year’s effort to showcase caring government at its finest. The problem with this is that different health insurance premiums for men and women are the result of different levels of consumption, not gender prejudice.
Some people in the Colorado legislature think that everyone should pay the same price for individual health insurance regardless of age, personal habits, or gender. They believe this even though women as a group use more health care than men. They cling tight to the belief that charging someone a lower price for health insurance simply because he uses less health care is, in the language of the bill, “unfairly discriminatory and shall not be allowed.” …
… the move to equalize premiums may also increase the number of uninsured people in Colorado…
… How about a law equalizing automobile insurance premiums for men and women in their teens and twenties? After all, men under 25 pay higher car insurance premiums than women of the same age, because women are statistically safer drivers than men.
Read the whole article: CO House Bill 1008 – Health Insurance Premiums: Women Pay, But Not Because of Unfair Discrimination. The text of the bill his here.
By the way, men tend to pay more for life insurance, as a page at LifeInsurance.org discusses (emphasis added):
Is it True That Men Pay More for Life Insurance?
Yes this is for the most part true, and it is not a form of sexual discrimination, it’s about statistics. Life insurance rates, like all insurance products, are based on potential risk, and men as a statistical group are riskier to insure than women, so they pay higher rates. Men die younger then women of almost every typical cause of death that leads to a life insurance claim, including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and just about every form of cancer. Women, only have a higher mortality rate than men in a few causes of death, including breast cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. Men as a group also tend to participate in more high-risk activities and careers than do women. Unfortunately, there is just no way to argue with these statistics, and generally all other things being equal i.e., age, tobacco, use etc, a man is going to pay more for a life insurance policy than a woman would.
