Katie Redding and David Sirota talk insurance industry discrimination and clean water

Colorado Independent writer Katie Redding joined Progressive Talk 760 AM host David Sirota this morning to discuss her recent reporting on insurance industry gender discrimination and pending national Good Samaritan water cleanup legislation.

Redding dialed in from her chilly open-air back porch in Leadville, teeth chattering. Sirota asked the usual good questions.

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Redding got it rolling by reported that rates are up to 49 percent higher for women in Colorado on the individual insurance market but that the industry claims that making insurance rates fair for men and women will only raise premiums for everyone.

Sirota: “This seems to be such a basic idea [charging equitable rates]… It seems almost shocking that even an industry as profiteering as the insurance industry could come out and oppose this…”

Redding: “The lobby says We want tyou to know we think this is going to raise rates for men. That’s the industry’s go-to place: ‘You can make us do whatever you want, but it will raise premiums.'”

Sirota: “Is there anything to back that up? I mean, I guess they can choose to raise everybody’s premiums… but is that a threat or a prediction or both? I mean it’s one thing to predict this could happen. It’s another thing when the entity making the prediction is the entity that gets to choose whether the prediction comes true. I guess what I’m asking is: Is this a thinly veiled threat?”

Listen to it here, at 760 AM.

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