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.
