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March 16, 2004
To: Officers, Rabbis, Key Contacts
From: Richard B. Stone, Chairman
Betty Ehrenberg, Director, International and Communal Affairs
Re: Insurance Legislation and Practices
Many citizens who have traveled in the past to Israel or the other
twenty-six countries on the US State Department current “Travel
Warnings” list have been denied coverage or have been subject to
higher premiums or exclusion. In response to this practice, a bill
has just been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives to
prohibit life insurance companies from using a person’s previous
lawful travel experiences as a basis for denying life insurance
policies.
H.R.3927, the Life Insurance Anti-Discrimination in Travel
Act, was introduced by Representatives Rahm Emanuel (D-IL),
Barney Frank (D-MA), Anthony Weiner (D-NY), and Peter Deutsch
(D-FL), among others. H.R.3927 would make it unlawful to deny,
cancel, change terms, rates, or conditions of life insurance
coverage based on lawful past travel. A similar bill has been
unanimously passed in the New York State Assembly by Speaker
Sheldon Silver and legislation has also been introduced in
Illinois. Together, these efforts both protect individuals from
discrimination based on past travel and draw the attention of the
insurance industry to business practices that have caused our
community significant concern.
A violation of the terms of this legislation would constitute an
unfair or deceptive act or practice pursuant to the applicable FTC
regulations. The bill does not cover other forms of insurance
including property and casualty, health, and worker’s
compensation, nor does it cover denials of insurance based on
future travel.
In the past, the Orthodox Union, together with Speaker Silver, led
an initiative to counter this kind of discrimination when an OU
officer was denied coverage by an insurance company on the basis
of travel to Israel. As a result, the insurance company withdrew
that unacceptable practice. Support is needed in order to help
pass H.R.3927 which would make this practice unlawful.
Please contact your Representatives and ask that they cosponsor
H.R.3927, the Life Insurance Anti-Discrimination in Travel
Act. If your Representative is already a cosponsor, please
thank him or her. The sixteen original cosponsors of H.R.3927
include Representatives Gary Ackerman (D-NY), Howard Berman
(D-CA), Benjamin Cardin (D-MD), Peter Deutsch (D-FL), Eliot Engel
(D-NY), Barney Frank (D-MA), Steve Israel (D-NY), Tom Lantos
(D-CA), Nita Lowey (D-NY), Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), Michael
Michaud (D-ME), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Janice Schakowsky (D-IL),
Henry Waxman (D–CA), Anthony Weiner (D-NY), and Robert Wexler
(D-FL).
Kindly feel free to contact us at 212-613-8124 if you need
additional information.
RBS
BE
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