SACRAMENTO – California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones has issued new regulations that prohibit the use of gender in private passenger automobile insurance rating in California.

The Gender Non-Discrimination in Automobile Insurance Rating Regulation became effective on Jan. 1, 2019.

"My priority as Insurance Commissioner is to protect all California consumers, and these regulations ensure that auto insurance rates are based on factors within a driver's control, rather than personal characteristics over which drivers have no control," said Jones.

This is not the first regulatory action Commissioner Jones has taken to prevent gender-based discrimination in California's insurance industry.

In 2012, the commissioner promulgated regulations that prohibit and prevent the denial of coverage or denial of claims for medical services based upon an insured or prospective insured's actual or perceived gender identity.

Prior to his election as insurance commissioner, then Assemblymember Jones authored legislation (Assembly Bill 119, in 2009) to prohibit gender-based discrimination in the pricing of health insurance.

Thanks to that law, California eliminated gender-based pricing in health insurance before that became the national standard under the Affordable Care Act.

The commissioner's Gender Non-Discrimination in Automobile Insurance Rating Regulation mandates that all automobile insurance companies operating in California file a revised class plan that eliminates the use of gender as a rating factor.