California Code of Regulations
Title 10 - Investment
Chapter 5 - Insurance Commissioner
Subchapter 3 - Insurers
Article 15 - Discrimination on Account of Sex and/or Marital Status
Section 2560.3 - Prohibited Practices
Current through Register 2024 Notice Reg. No. 38, September 20, 2024
No person or entity engaged in the business of insurance in this State shall refuse to issue any contract of insurance or shall cancel or decline to renew such contact because of the sex, marital status or sexual orientation of the insured or prospective insured. The amount of benefits payable, or any term, condition or type of coverage shall not be restricted, modified, excluded or reduced on the basis of the sex, marital status or sexual orientation of the insured or prospective insured. (However, marital status may be considered for the purpose of determining eligibility for dependents' or family coverage.) Examples of the practices prohibited by this section include, but are not limited to:
(a) Denying, cancelling or refusing to renew coverage, or providing coverage on different terms, because the insured or prospective insured is residing with another person or persons not related to him or her by blood or marriage;
(b) Offering coverage to males gainfully employed at home, employed part-time or employed by relatives while denying or offering reduced coverage to females similarly employed;
(c) Reducing disability benefits for females who become disabled while not gainfully employed full-time outside the home when a similar reduction is not applied to males;
(d) Denying females waiver of premium provisions that are available to males or offering such provisions to females only for contract limits that are lower than those available to males;
(e) Refusing to offer maternity benefits to insureds or prospective insureds purchasing individual contracts when comparable family coverage contracts offer maternity benefits;
(f) Denying, under group contracts, dependent's coverage to husbands of female employees when dependent's coverage is available to wives of male employees;
(g) Offering coverage to males in certain occupations while denying coverage or offering more limited coverage to females in the same occupational categories;
(h) Offering males higher benefit levels and/or longer benefit periods than are offered to females in the same classifications;
(i) Offering contracts containing different definitions of disability for females and males in the same classifications;
(j) Offering contracts containing different waiting and elimination periods for females and males;
(k) Requiring female applicants to submit to medical examinations while not requiring males to submit to such examinations for the same coverage;
(l) Establishing different benefit options for females and males;
(m) Denying to divorced or single persons coverage available to married persons;
(n) Limiting the amount of coverage available to an insured or prospective insured based upon his or her marital status;
(o) Denying employees of one sex insurance benefits that are offered to dependents who are of the same sex as the employees;
(p) Denying a married or separated female the right to obtain coverage in her own name;
(q) Establishing different issue age requirements for females and males;
(r) Establishing different occupational classifications for females and males;
(s) Denying coverage to unwed mothers and/or their dependents;
(t) Refusing to continue coverage on a spouse or ex-spouse while continuing coverage on the other spouse or ex-spouse following separation or dissolution of a married couple previously covered under a family or household contract.
