The insurance industry, however, had other plans. Arguing that unisex laws would force women to pay more for insurance and—counterintuitively—bankrupt firms, companies like Geico, Nationwide, Cigna, Aetna, and Travelers sent hundreds of thousands of mailings to their customers, warning of dire consequences associated with unisex insurance. The American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI) spent $400,000 on anti-unisex ads, including in twelve of the country’s largest newspapers. and Industry associations lobbied against the laws in Congress. The National Organization for Women and the Women’s Equity Action League worked to refute the industry’s self-serving public relations campaign, but by 1984, insurance companies had turned the tide of public opinion. State and federal unisex proposals stalled out. Lawsuits against insurance companies failed as well. Insurance reform, which had looked inevitable at the beginning of the decade, was roundly defeated (Horan, Insurance Era, Chapter 6).
Montana’s Unisex Trajectory
Montana—an anti-corporate stronghold—was the only state to overcome the anti-unisex campaign, banning the consideration of gender and marital status in all forms of insurance in 1983. At the time, the National Organization for Women estimated the law would save women $8,000 over a lifetime; the industry estimated a cost of $16,000.
Montana’s unisex law remained in place for 36 years and none of the insurance industry’s dire forecasts came to fruition. Nevertheless, a Republican majority re-legalized insurance discrimination based on sex and marital status in 2021. Industry insiders lobbied hard for this change, repeating the same tired arguments from the 1980s: that unisex laws hurt women and hurt business. However, studies by the Consumer Federation of America show that without unisex laws, women often pay more than men for insurance—even in auto insurance, where actuarial assessments tend to show that men are riskier. As CFA explained in its rebuttals to the industry’s claims, sex discrimination in insurance only serves to allow insurers to raise rates.
The Case
In 2021, Upper Seven Law challenged the constitutionality of Montana’s unisex insurance rollback. Armed with data and the strength of the Montana Constitution’s equal protection clause, we filed a lawsuit on behalf of a team of individual consumers and women’s advocacy organizations, including the Montana chapters of the American Association of University Women and the National Organization for Women. The case seeks to invalidate the new law for codifying discrimination against women and unmarried people. Trial is scheduled for the spring of 2025.
