Feb. 10--State insurance regulators said they left a public hearing Friday without adequate responses from Geico Corp. and two other insurance companies about why they charge higher rates to Florida drivers who have lower education levels or job classifications.

"The answers were not very satisfying,' said Bob Lotane, a spokesman for the state Office of Insurance Regulation.

Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty will prepare a report for lawmakers, state officials and Gov. Charlie Crist about what should happen next.

Regulators have considered barring insurers from using education and occupation as pricing factors unless they can show they do not discriminate against minorities and the poor.

Just such a ban was imposed last year by regulators for insurance scoring, the practice of insurers changing higher rates for those with poor credit, but a state administrative law judge knocked it down.

During a hearing Friday in Tallahassee, McCarty and Steve Parton, general counsel for the Office of Insurance Regulation, pressed representatives from Chevy Chase, Md.-based Geico, Liberty Mutual of Boston and New York-based American International Group to explain why the pricing differences do not constitute bias.

The representatives insisted the policies are based on each insurance company's own data, which show that those with lower education or job classifications had a higher chance of filing a claim.

As long as their data were actuarially justified, they said, there was no discrimination.

"The vast majority of the people who buy auto insurance from Geico are working-class men and women,' said Hank Nayden, the company's senior vice president and legislative counsel. 'If we overcharged those people, they would purchase from our competitors."

Geico rates can be more than 40 percent higher for motorists who never went to college than they are for holders of graduate degrees, even if the high school graduates have perfect driving records, according to a report by the Consumer Federation of America.

McCarty and Parton presented U.S. Census data that show blacks and other minorities have a lower rate of college completion than whites. The two then asked company officials to explain how charging higher rates to those who had gone only to high school was not discriminatory.

Asked by Parton whether Geico had looked at the impact on minorities of using education and occupation data, Nayden replied, 'Nobody looks at it.' Officials from Liberty Mutual and AIG gave similar answers.

"I have not, and I am not aware of anyone in the company who has," said Chris Cunniff, a Liberty Mutual vice president.

Insurers also described as trade secrets their data showing the full details of their contention that education and job classification are accurate indicators of risk.