WASHINGTON, D.C.—As some of the best known insurance companies in the country continue to deny life insurance to citizens on a widespread basis, U.S. Representatives Rahm Emanuel (D-IL), Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Barney Frank (D-MA), Anthony Weiner (D-NY) and Peter Deutsch (D-FL) introduced the Life Insurance Anti-Discrimination in Travel Act.

The bill will prohibit life insurance companies from using a person’s previous lawful travel experiences as a basis for denying life insurance policies.  Many citizens who have traveled in the past to Israel or the other 26 countries on the U.S. State Department’s current “Travel Warnings” list have been subject to higher premiums or exclusion.  The Life Insurance Anti-Discrimination in Travel Act would make it unlawful to deny, cancel, change terms, rates or conditions of life insurance coverage based on lawful past travel. 

“It is outrageous that life insurance companies are holding a potential customer’s past travel history over his or her head,” Congressman Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) said.  “Life insurance is an investment that working families make to protect their security in the event of the untimely death of a parent or spouse.  Obviously, assessing risk should remain the core of the life insurance industry, but whether or not an applicant has visited a specific location, such as Israel or Turkey, is not a legitimate or reliable factor is in determining future risk,” he continued. 

“I don’t think it’s appropriate to confuse foreign policy with insurance policies,” said House Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Barney Frank (D-MA).

There is also a growing effort at the state level to ban the discriminatory practice, with bills introduced in both the Illinois and New York state legislatures.

Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY) said, “America and Israel have not cowered in the face of terrorism.  We will not allow the insurance industry to shrink from its responsibility.  Business and tourism between Israel and the United States will continue to thrive.  Terror won’t slow us down and neither will the shameful pricing practices of insurance companies.”

“Americans who have traveled abroad should not have to worry about their families’ financial future.  Unfortunately, some insurance companies have been practicing an ill-conceived rule that denies coverage for doing something that is legal,” said Congressman Peter Deutsch (D-FL).  “This must change.  It is unseemly to deny life insurance coverage based on past travel to free and democratic allies.”

Original cosponsors of the Life Insurance Anti-Discrimination in Travel Act include: U.S. Representatives Barney Frank (D-MA), Anthony Weiner (D-NY), Peter Deutsch (D-FL), Henry Waxman (D-CA), Steve Israel (D-NY), Tom Lantos (D-CA), Eliot Engel (D-NY), Gary Ackerman (D-NY), Howard Berman (D-CA), Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), Michael Michaud (D-ME), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD), Nita Lowey (D-NY), and Robert Wexler (D-FL).

Click here for the summary of the Life Insurance Anti-Discrimination in Travel Act