California Lawmakers Take Aim at Gender-Based Pricing for Health Insurance Coverage

Bills under consideration in the California Assembly and Senate would bar health insurers from taking an applicant’s sex into consideration when setting premiums for coverage.

A Special Report by Deirdre Kennedy includes comments from:

Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco);
Lisa Codispoti, senior adviser for health and reproductive rights at the National Women’s Law Center;
Marti Fisher, a policy advocate for labor, employment and health care at the California Chamber of Commerce; and
Robert Zirkelbach, director of strategic communications for America’s Health Insurance Plans.

About a dozen states ban or restrict gender rating for health insurance (Kennedy, California Healthline, 5/29).

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

<h1>California Lawmakers Take Aim at Gender-Based Pricing for Health Insurance Coverage</h1>
<div>		<time class="posted-on" datetime="2009-05-29T00:00:00-07:00">
			May 29, 2009		</time>
		</div>
<p>Bills under consideration in the California Assembly and Senate would bar health insurers from taking an applicant’s sex into consideration when setting premiums for coverage.</p><p>A Special Report by Deirdre Kennedy includes comments from:</p><ul><li>Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco); </li><li>Lisa Codispoti, senior adviser for health and reproductive rights at the National Women’s Law Center; </li><li>Marti Fisher, a policy advocate for labor, employment and health care at the California Chamber of Commerce; and </li><li>Robert Zirkelbach, director of strategic communications for America’s Health Insurance Plans.</li></ul><p>About a dozen states ban or restrict gender rating for health insurance (Kennedy, <i>California Healthline</i>, 5/29).</p><em><a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/about-us">KFF Health News</a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about <a href="https://www.kff.org/about-us">KFF</a>.</em><p><a href="https://californiahealthline.org/morning-briefing/">Subscribe</a> to KFF Health News' free Morning Briefing.</p>

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