Commissioner tries again with credit ratings ban for insurance premiums
Critics and stakeholders are lining up to challenge the legal and factual basis of the new rule.
“The COVID emergency rule was an ideologically driven excuse by the insurance commissioner to impose a policy he long supported — but it’s a bad idea even as it was recently implemented,” Steven Greenhut, Western region director for the R Street Institute, told The Center Square.
He added, “Credit-based scores are one factor in determining insurance rates because they are a reliable predictor of claims. As Washington residents have already seen, banning their use increases premiums for people who have developed good credit.”
Greenhut also took issue with the insurance commissioner’s insistence that COVID-19 has generally worsened credit scores.
“The whole basis for the rule is off base,” he said. “Americans’ credit scores have actually gone up. They’ve reduced their credit-card debt and fewer people have subprime scores. There is no credit-score crisis.”
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