Saturday, May 17, 2014

A full (insured) circle

Four years ago when a political party passed a law forbidding insurance companies to use a certain data point to determine what they charge in rates, labeling it discrimination, I wrote:

This is not discrimination, this is mathematics. Do health insurance companies discriminate when they charge smokers more? Do life insurance companies discriminate when they charge older people more? Do car insurance companies discriminate when they charge more to people with bad driving records?

Sadly, that paragraph has become relevant again.

In 2010, I was writing about the Democrats passing a federal law forbidding health insurance companies from charging women higher premiums. Today, every word of it applies to a state bill Florida Republicans passed that prevents home and auto insurance companies from charging higher rates to gun owners, labeling it discrimination.

Ken White rightly labeled this as allowing a pet issue to trump principles, adding:

Treating guns as an asterisk to principles — treating the Second Amendment as if it empowers the government to regulate private conduct, rather than just limiting the government — is incoherent and un-conservative.

By the way, incase you thought Florida House and Senate Republicans were alone in this awful position, the NRA's legislative organ is in full support of the bill and also uses the "discrimination" label.

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