(The Center Square) – The Illinois General Assembly has passed a bill to prevent life insurance companies from refusing coverage or charging higher rates to convicted felons.
House Bill 2425 provides that life insurance policies may not refuse policies, restrict coverage or charge different rates to individuals solely based on felony convictions.
State Sen. Adriane Johnson, D-Buffalo Grove, said the measure would prevent insurers from limiting coverage or charging higher rates for people convicted of felonies.
“There is considerable evidence that many of them discriminate against individuals with a felony. The rates are astronomical and, therefore, in essence, that’s a denial,” Johnson said on the Senate floor last Thursday.
State Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Cherry Valley, said life insurance rates are based on averaging out the risk.
“Under this, we’re saying to one group of individuals that actuarily are a higher risk that that should be set aside and we should make everybody else have to pay higher rates to be able to protect that individual,” Syverson said.
State Sen. Jason Plummer, R-Edwardsville, joined Syverson in opposing HB 2425. Plummer said the bill puts insurance companies in a weird spot and could force them out of the market.
“If this bill just said, ‘Hey, they can’t use the fact that they have a felony against them,’ and offering the thing, I’d fully support it, but it gets into playing with rates that insurance companies can charge,” Plummer said. “If we really care about these people and we really want to make sure they and their families can be taken care of at this terrible moment in their life, we have to oppose this bill.”
Johnson, the chief sponsor of HB 2425 in the Senate, disagreed and said increased life insurance costs can limit felons’ ability to secure stable employment.
“So let’s make sure we remove the invisible handcuffs and remove the invisible prison cells and allow these individuals to purchase final expense policies so that their families are not burdened with any financial difficulties and they are able to die with dignity and pay for those final expenses,” Johnson said.
The bill does not require life insurance companies to provide coverage to people who are actively incarcerated due to felony convictions.
After passing both houses in the state legislature, HB 2425 can go to Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
