Mass. Agents’ Underwriting Ban Passes First Ballot Test

Nearly all of the proposed questions for Massachusetts’ 2012 state ballot have been given preliminary approval including one that would ban insurers from using credit scores and socioeconomic factors in pricing auto insurance.

The Massachusetts Association of Insurance Agents (MAIA) petitioned for the ballot proposal to prohibit insurance companies from using a person’s credit score, occupation, or level of education as factors in underwriting and rating of private passenger automobile insurance.

Attorney General Martha Coakley certified 23 of the 31 initiative petitions filed with her office, allowing them to move on to the next round of the approval process. Now petitioners will have three months to collect nearly 69,000 signatures from registered voters to put their questions on the 2012 ballot.

MAIA’s petition mirrors legislation the group filed this session, Senate Bill No. 461, to prohibit the use of these socioeconomic factors. “While we remain focused on passing this important bill through the legislative process, we felt it was essential to keep all avenues open to us,” said Frank Mancini, president of MAIA.

The agent group’s opposition to the pricing practices pits agents against some of the very companies whose policies they sell.

A trade group for insurers in the state said the agents are not happy that the state now has a competitive market. The insurer group, Massachusetts Insurance Federation (MIF), called the action by the MAIA to place a question on the 2012 state ballot “unnecessary, redundant and completely without merit.”

“This is political grandstanding pure and simple,” said James T. Harrington, executive director of the MIF.

Topics Agencies Underwriting Massachusetts