Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!tektronix!tekecs!annej From: annej@tekecs.UUCP (Anne Jacko) Newsgroups: net.women Subject: Re: Supreme Court decision Message-ID: <1743@tekecs.UUCP> Date: Wed, 27-Jul-83 14:04:17 EDT Article-I.D.: tekecs.1743 Posted: Wed Jul 27 14:04:17 1983 Date-Received: Thu, 28-Jul-83 20:43:06 EDT References: abnjh.206 Lines: 48 I'm a member of NOW, and I generally support what they're trying to do. But I was having trouble swallowing the idea that insurance companies are discriminating on the basis of sex by varying their rates for different risk groups. Yesterday I received a letter from NOW about the Non-Discrimination in Insurance Act. The letter flames a bit, since it's intended to motivate the reader to send money, but I thought it contained some interesting information. It's a least a change from what the insurance companies are saying. ...the [insurance] industry has been spending millions of dollars to dupe the public. Most outrageous of all, one of the major messages they're sending is that the supporters of this legislation...while "well-intentioned," are not terribly bright. They insist that we are supporting the bill for "the principle of the thing," that we think equality for equality's sake is worth it, even though passage of the bill would cost women money. ...It is a lie that women benefit from the insurance industry's sex-based pricing system. Our groundbreaking research on that system has demonstrated *conclusively* that sex discrimination in insurance cheats women and yields inflated profits for insurers....Women pay *up to twice as much as men* for disability and health insurance, a difference that is completely unjustified by the statistical data!...Only about 15% of women actually do live longer -- yet *all women* are penalized for something they cannot change.... While some women may pay lower prices than men their age for auto insurance up to the age of 25, the industry's own figures show that *women have lower accident rates throughout their entire driving lives* -- one-third lower! Therefore, the real news is not that young women pay less than young men, it's that *women are cheated by paying the same as men from age 25 on.* ...Over a lifetime, a woman who has auto, health, disability, and life insurance, and an annuity, will pay $15,732 *more* than a man will pay for the same coverage... ...[there is] compelling evidence that the insurance industry played a significat role in blocking passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. -- Anne Jacko, Tektronix ...decvax!tektronix!tekecs!annej