On October 19th the CDI gave a 45 day notice of a public hearing to be held on December 3, 2018, at 10:00 a.m. at the CDI’s offices in Sacramento. The hearing is to consider amending the California Code of Regulations to eliminate the use of gender in private passenger automobile insurance rating in California pursuant to the authority granted by California Insurance Code section 1861.02(a)(4). The proposed amendments will eliminate the use of a driver’s gender in private passenger automobile rating by eliminating gender of the rated driver from the list of optional rating factors in California Insurance Code section 1861.02. Written comments may also be submitted prior to December 3rd to the Rate Enforcement Bureau in San Francisco and via email to [email protected].
The CDI’s public notice indicates that The Gender Recognition Act which permits California driver license applicants to select “nonbinary” to appear on their driver license instead of “male” or “female” beginning on January 1, 2019, has brought forward the problems with using gender as an optional rating factor since there is no historical experience upon which to establish an actuarially justified nonbinary rate. Given the small population size of nonbinary drivers, it is likely that there will never be sufficiently credible data upon which to base such a rate. Eliminating gender as a rating factor ensures that nonbinary individuals are treated fairly under Proposition 103’s mandate to avoid unfairly discriminatory rates.
