SUSSEX COUNTY, Del.— The Consumer Federation of America (CFA) released a report on Thursday that revealed women pay more for car insurance premiums in Delaware than men.
Insurance Commissioner Trinidad Navarro is working with sponsor Senator Kyle Evans Gay, Senate District 5, to bring a bill to the Senate Floor. SB 231 states that car insurance companies will not be able to evaluate candidate for car insurance policies based on their gender.
"On average women pay between 8 to 9 percent more for their private auto insurance than men, and for one company, they pay 20 percent more," Commissioner Trinidad Navarro said.
Sen. Gay says car insurance agencies should use predictive factors such as miles driven or accidents reported instead of gender.
"The car insurances companies, if they have the data to show that gender is a predictive factor, they haven't demonstrated that to use, and they haven't demonstrated that there is a significant policy reason why we should be using gender to calculate car insurance premiums," Sen. Gay said.
Six states already have their own version of this bill including:
California, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
WRDE reached out to multiple auto insurance agencies in Sussex County and three said they're not seeing that women are paying more for car insurance.
Sen. Gay says that if SB 231 is signed by Gov. Carney by June 30th that Delawareans could see gender removed as a factor in determining car insurance rates by July.