Do Women Pay Higher Insurance Rates Than Men in Louisiana?

Insurance companies have used various criteria for setting auto insurance rates for years.  As a young driver, you couldn't wait to hit that age when you're rates dropped.  But it seems insurance companies are also using gender to determine auto insurance rates.

Get our free mobile app

Senator Jay Luneau from Alexandria is introducing legislation to prohibit auto insurance companies from using gender as a factor when setting insurance rates for drivers.  Luneau says they've found that some providers actually charge female drivers more in insurance rates than they do for male drivers.

"And there are no competent studies that indicate females are worse drivers, in fact, there are many studies that show females get less speeding tickets, they’re involved in less fatal accidents, they get less DWIs, and a lot of factors indicate they are probably better drivers than males,” said Luneau.

Lunueau has attempted similar legislation in the past, but it never made it out of committee because some members opposed it fearing it would cause insurance rates for men to go up.

“Which I didn’t think was very good opposition but apparently some members of the committee thought that was a good argument because they voted that way,” said Luneau.

According to a story from Quotewizard.com:

• Women pay more for auto insurance in 31 states
• Women pay $100 - $378 more in Alaska, Florida, New York and Delaware.
• Men pay more in 15 states but only around $28 on average
• Men and women pay the same in only 7 states

 Luneau said a few years ago, an insurance actuary priced insurance for two fictitious persons, both named Chris.  Both had the same address and the same type of car, but the female Chris paid more than her male counterpart.  Even though the male had a DUI, his rate was still lower than the female's.

“It’s an unfair disadvantage to females and so I’ve brought that bill again and we’re going try to see if we can’t convince some folks that it’s a good idea and pass it through and try to lower some automobile insurance rates,” said Luneau.

The next regular legislative session gets underway on April 10th.