Calif. commissioner moves to ban marital status in auto insurance pricing

SACRAMENTO — California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara introduced proposed regulations Wednesday to bar auto insurance companies from using marital status when calculating rates, taking aim at a 30-year-old industry pricing mechanism.

The proposal would eliminate a key optional rating factor permitted since 1996, aligning California's private passenger automobile coverage more closely with driver behavior rather than domestic arrangements. Under Proposition 103, passed by voters in 1988, auto rates must rely primarily on three mandatory factors: a driver's safety record, annual mileage, and years of driving experience. While the law permits the state commissioner to approve optional factors tied to loss risk, regulators now argue marital status lacks a sufficient relationship to modern driving safety.

"The price of your auto insurance should be based on how you drive, not whether you're married," Lara said in a statement. "Today, we are taking action to end that outdated practice and reinforce a simple principle: insurance rates should be grounded in actual driving risk."

The regulatory push follows a July 16 decision by the California First District Court of Appeal in Ison v. Lara, which affirmed the commissioner's statutory authority to establish and revise optional rating factors under Proposition 103.

Legislative leaders backed the administration's shift, framing the reliance on marital status as an outdated shortcut that penalizes single drivers.

"There is no circumstance where it is acceptable for an unmarried driver to pay more for auto insurance for the sole reason of being unmarried," said Assemblymember Lisa Calderon (D-Whittier), chair of the Assembly Insurance Committee. State Sen. Steve Padilla (D-San Diego), who chairs the Senate Insurance Committee, added that ratemaking must reflect "real indicators of risk" rather than demographic generalizations.

Under the draft rules, insurance providers operating in the state would be forced to remove marital status from their pricing structures and submit revised rating plans to the California Department of Insurance. State regulators will review the adjusted rate filings to ensure compliance with Proposition 103 requirements that coverage rates remain justified and non-discriminatory.

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